THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


GIFT  OF 
WUJLIAM  P.  WRKDQi 


The  Captain  of  the  School 


The 

Captain  of  the  School 

By 
EDITH    ROBINSON 

Author  of  "A  Loyal  Little  Maid,"  "  Penhallow  Tales,"  etc. 

Illustrated  by 
ALICE   BARBER   STEPHENS 


BOSTON 

LITTLE,  BROWN,   tf   COMPANY 
1901 


Copyright,  1901, 
BY  LITTLE,  BROWN,  AND  COMPANY 


All  rights  reserved 


October,  1901 


UNIVERSITY  PRESS    •    JOHN  WILSON 
AND  SON     •      CAMBRIDGE,    U.  S.  A. 


TS 


List  of  Illustrations 

"  It  was  Dick,  and  as  with  one  impulse  they  fell  upon  him  " 

Frontispiece 

"  'Turnovers  for  the  crowd  !     Any  root-beer  that  didn't  come 

over  in  the  Mayflower  ? '  " Page     23 

"  'It's  a  petition  from  the  girls,'  he  explained"  .    "       81 

"  '  I  never  meant  to  ask  you  to  pay,  Bobby  '  " "     138 

" '  I  want  to  tell  you  about  your  little  friend  '"...."     205 


The  Captain  of  the  School 


CHAPTER  ONE 

|  OMING  here  on  a  visit,  Colonel  Jerome,  who  goes 
around  everywhere,  and  is  the  nephew  of  the 
Secretary  of  the  Interior  1 "  gasped  Chris. 

"  I  don't  care  if  he  goes  around  like  a  top  and  is  the 
Interior  itself  1  "  rejoined  Nan,  tartly,  more  for  the  sake 
of  opposition  than  because  she  felt  disposed  to  make 
light  of  the  threatened  crisis. 

"  If  our  mishaps  and  shortcomings  were  only  dignified, 
or  even  tragic,  instead  of  paltry  and  ridiculous,  it  would 
not  be  so  bad,"  sighed  Lou. 

"I  wonder  how  many  Indians  he's  killed,"  observed 
Bobby,  with  sanguine  interest. 

"  Tee-hee  1 "  added  Betty,  whose  usual  tribute  to  any 
family  discussion  was  giggles  or  tears,  in  inverse  pro 
priety  to  the  occasion. 

Silence  followed  the  chorus  of  dismay  as  each  gazed 
at  its  cause, — the  letter  with  the  Montana  postmark, 
drooping  in  Chris's  hands. 

The  "  big  brother,"  who  in  the  years  on  the  Western 

ranch  had  become  little  more  than  a  name  to  the  home 

i 


2        THE  CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL 

circle,  was  coming  East  in  the  early  spring,  and  would  be 
accompanied  by  Colonel  Jerome,  the  commander  at  the 
neighboring  military  station  and  his  best  friend.  It  was 
the  latter  announcement  that  had  dashed  the  cup  of  joy 
with  bitterness,  and  changed  joyous  anticipation  to  some 
thing  like  consternation. 

"As  Dick  remembers  our  home,  we  could  have  re 
ceived  any  guest  without  qualms;  but  think  of  the 
mortification  of  letting  a  man  like  Colonel  Jerome  into 
the  secrets  of  our  wretched  makeshifts  and  short 
comings,"  sighed  Chris. 

"  When  people  once  begin  running  down  hill,  there  is 
a  moral  momentum  that  accelerates  their  speed  till  they 
land  in  splinters  and  tatters  at  the  bottom,"  added  Nan, 
with  her  usual  gloomy  philosophy. 

"  Think  of  the  student  lamp,  with  its  chronic  habit  of 
bubbling  and  sizzling,  now  sinking  into  meditation  and 
dulness,  and  then  blazing  up  into  a  perfect  fury  of 
illumination,"  began  Lou,  who,  notwithstanding  her  own 
unruffled  calm  of  mind  and  demeanor,  had  a  habit  of 
making  bad  matters  worse,  of  ferreting  out  the  worst 
possibilities  of  a  situation,  that  at  tunes  drove  her 
family  to  the  verge  of  distraction.  "  Consider  the  carpet 
pieced  out  with  that  of  another  pattern,  the  cracked  and 
mended,  nicked  and  missing  china,  the  fragmentary 
table  linen,  the  door-bell  that  remains  in  the  hand  of  the 
dismayed  caller,  the  damaged  arm  of  the  sitting-room  sofa 
that  thunders  to  the  floor  at  the  least  unwary  touch." 

"  I  '11  kick  it  off  for  a  salute  when  I  see  him  coming," 


THE  CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL       3 

proffered  Bobby.  "  He  '11  think  it 's  the  cannon's  bloody 
roar." 

Betty's  giggle,  checked  by  the  frowns  of  the  family, 
subsided  into  a  whimper,  that  presently  developed  into 
sobs,  as  Bobby  began  to  paint  in  lively  colors  the  pre 
sumable  appearance  of  Colonel  Jerome,  in  wampum  and 
war-paint,  armed  with  bowie  and  six-shooter,  and  his 
habit  of  lassoing  children  who  talked  too  much  in  the 
presence  of  their  elders. 

"  But  we  '11  do  our  best  by  Dick's  pard,"  he  added. 
"  He  shall  have  our  one  trustworthy  chair,  the  solitary 
cup  that  boasts  a  handle,  the  napkin  kept  sacred  for 
company;  we  will  place  him  where  he  can  feast  his 
eyes  on  the  one  good  breadth  of  carpet,  and  will  give 
Betty  timely  instruction  not  to  giggle  if  his  martial 
glance  wanders  from  headquarters." 

"  I  'm  going  to  sit  up  as  late  as  Lou  does  every  single 
night  Colonel  Jerome  is  here,"  announced  Betty,  the 
first  to  perceive  a  glimpse  of  the  silver  lining  of  the 
portentous  cloud. 

"You  would  contribute  more  to  the  pleasing  effect 
of  our  hospitality  by  observing  the  proper  occasion 
for  giggles  and  tears,"  suggested  Bobby.  "  Now  mind, 
Betty,"  he  went  on  authoritatively,  "when  I  kick  you 
under  the  table  —  so — you  are  to  laugh,  and  when  I 
wink  —  like  this — you  must  cry."  He  accompanied 
these  instructions  by  practical  illustrations  that  pro 
duced  a  prolonged  howl  and  a  rubbing  of  the  shins 
on  Betty's  part,  and  a  hobgoblin  contortion  of  coun- 


4  THE   CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL 

tenance   that  would  have  made  gravity  difficult  in  the 
presence  of  the  most  august. 

"  And  you  'd  better  not  bring  those  old  mud  hens  you 
shoot  into  the  sitting-room,  and  you  needn't  clean  your 
bicycle  in  the  dining-room  and  leave  all  the  greasy  rags 
on  the  sideboard,"  retorted  Betty. 

"Do  be  quiet,  Betty,"  said  Nan,  sharply.  "If  you 
had  any  bringing  up,  you  would  not  be  so  ready  to 
talk  on  every  occasion.  If  Colonel  Jerome  comes,  I 
hope  you  will  remember  that  children  are  to  be  seen 
and  not  heard — and  that  it  isn't  absolutely  necessary 
they  should  be  seen,  either." 

"Betty  is  my  charge,"  retorted  Chris.  "While  you 
are  polishing  up  the  family  manners,  you  'd  better  leave 
off  that  big  apron — if  you  can  bring  yourself  to  part 
with  it  for  five  minutes — and  that  hideous  black 
sweeping-cap  that  makes  you  look  like  the  hangman's 
victim,  and  don't  be  so  much  in  the  clouds  as  to  for 
get  to  order  dinner!" — an  allusion  to  a  bygone  epi 
sode  that  was  a  stock  weapon  in  her  warfare  with 
Nan,  and  which  never  failed  of  effect.  "And  don't 
have  rice  pudding  for  dinner  more  than  seven  times 
a  week,"  she  added  with  personal  rancor. 

"And  don't  you  be  so  elegant  and  finicky  as  to 
think  of  nothing  but  your  clothes,  and  talk  to  Colonel 
Jerome  the  gossip  you  get  out  of  the  society  columns 
of  the  Sunday  newspapers,  as  though  you'd  been  at 
every  function  of  the  past  week  when  you  don't  even 
know  the  people  by  sight  I "  answered  Nan,  breathlessly. 


THE   CAPTAIN  OF   THE   SCHOOL  5 

"  And  Lou  is  to  put  a  bridle  on  her  tongue,  and  not 
say  any  of  Punch's  things  that  had  better  be  left 
unsaid,"  added  Bobby. 

"We  cannot  make  up  to  Dick  for  that  which  he 
has  truly  lost,"  said  Chris,  presently,  in  a  softened 
tone;  and  with  the  words  the  frowning  faces  grew 
thoughtful  and  the  ill  humor  that  had  settled  about 
the  breakfast-table  seemed  to  melt  away. 

"We  can  at  least  try  to  make  Dick's  home-coming 
pleasant,  and  welcome  his  friend  as — as  she  would  have 
done,"  said  Nan,  with  a  little  choke  in  her  voice. 

"She  would  just  have  made  the  best  of  things,  and 
been  so  sweet  and  lovely  that  nobody  would  have 
thought  of  the  gone-to-pieces  aspect  of  everything, 
within  and  without,"  added  Lou,  partially  forgetful 
of  her  usual  rQle. 

"We're  snobs  for  caring,  anyway;  and  if  Colonel 
Jerome  is  an  officer  and  gentleman,  he'll  see  what 
good  fellows  we  are,  and  not  mind  a  rap  that  we, 
the  descendants  of  Governor  Thomas  Dudley,  are  living 
on  our  name  and  traditions,"  said  Bobby,  energetically. 

"  Listen  1 "  said  Nan,  to  whom  in  her  exalted  moods 
no  glass  mountain  was  impossible  of  ascent,  "  this  house 
must  be  made  presentable  between  now  and  Easter. 
Much  can  be  done  in  six  months." 

"It  might  as  well  be  six  years!"  responded  Chris, 
partly  from  a  confirmed  habit  of  disagreeing  with  Nan, 
and  partly  because  of  an  eminently  practical  nature. 
"Or  perhaps,  you  think  that  china  and  glass  and 


6        THE  CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL 

table  linen  are  to  be  provided  with  the  words,  '  Little 
table,  spread  yourself  I ' "  she  added  crushingly. 

Nan  unwontedly  let  the  gauntlet  lie  unheeded. 

"We  will  earn  all  the  money  we  can  this  winter. 
We  will  go  without  the  new  gowns  we  planned.  We 
will  not  make  any  Christmas  presents  except,  of  course, 
to  Betty,"  she  added,  as  her  little  sister's  brow  clouded. 

"  I  don't  want  any  presents,  either,  if  the  rest  of  you 
aren't  going  to  have  any,"  declared  Betty,  stoutly. 
"And  I'll  save  all  my  money,  too,  to  have  things 
nice  and  pretty  for  Dick  and  Colonel  Jerome." 

"  Things  will  be  wearing  out  all  the  tune,"  observed 
Lou,  thoughtfully. 

"I'll  try  and  make  my  hens  understand  the  situa 
tion,"  said  Bobby,  cheerfully.  "I'll  declaim  the  Dec 
laration  of  Independence  and  '  Horatius '  to  them,  and 
see  if  it  won't  stir  them  up  to  patriotism  and  love 
of  martial  glory." 

Each  of  the  others  had  her  private  income,  scanty 
though  it  was.  That  of  Chris  was  derived  from  the 
sale  of  embroideries;  Nan's  from  brush  and  pencil. 
Lou's  pocket  money  was  supplied  by  a  small  legacy 
left  by  the  aunt  for  whom  she  was  named.  Betty's 
purse  was  filled  from  the  rag-bag  and  a  sheep  on  Dick's 
ranch,  the  sum  brought  by  its  fleece  being  regularly 
forwarded  every  shearing-tune.  To  judge  by  the  tone 
in  which  she  referred  to  "my  sheep,"  one  might  have 
supposed  Betty  the  owner  of  all  the  flocks  that  grazed 
in  the  valleys  of  Montana. 


THE  CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL       1 

"As  though  we  hadn't  pinched  and  scraped  already 
to  the  last  turn  of  the  screw,  to  the  verge  of  the 
impossible,"  sighed  Chris.  But  even  in  the  uncom 
promising  words  ky  the  admission  that  another  turn 
of  the  screw  might  be  accomplished,  the  impossible 
achieved. 

The  circle  of  youthful  faces  grew  grave  as  the  sacri 
fices  that  would  be  required  to  compass  the  desired  end 
arose  before  them.  How  could  Chris  dispense  with  the 
dainty  boots  and  gloves  that  no  ingenuity  of  needle  or  of 
"making  over"  could  provide?  Nan  had  a  thousand 
ungratified  wants,  from  a  Dresden  cup  and  saucer  to  art 
instruction  abroad.  Lou's  ever-present  longing  was  for 
a  new  hat  when  it  was  not  for  a  bonnet.  "  Which,  — 
hat  or  bonnet?"  was  Lou's  life  problem. 

To  be  the  most  popular  boy  in  Holbrook  entailed 
expenses  that  would  have  borne  heavily  upon  a  better 
filled  purse  than  Bobby's.  The  most  serious  item  in 
Betty's  private  expenditure  was  the  purchase  of  a 
certain  confection  known  as  a  "  jaw-breaker."  This  at 
tractively  named  delicacy  consisted  of  a  granite  slab  in 
which  were  embedded  fossils  that  in  prehistoric  times 
had  been  walnuts.  In  one  respect,  however,  Betty's 
favorite  dainty  was  richly  worth  its  modest  price,  for 
a  single  "jaw-breaker"  might  have  been  warranted  a 
supply  for  the  soundest  teeth,  the  most  tireless  jaws, 
for  a  good  twelvemonth. 

"She  would  not  have  thought  it  a  sacrifice,"  said 
Chris,  in  the  tone  that  now  and  again  gave  a  glimpse, 


8        THE  CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL 

faint  and  transitory  though  it  was,  of  another  nature 
beneath  the  girlish  aspirations  and  petty  strivings  that 
dominated  the  present. 

With  the  words,  tacit  consent  seemed  to  be  given  by 
each  and  all  that  the  effort  should  be  made,  the  sacrifices 
consummated.  For  the  voice  that  had  somehow  made 
itself  heard  above  the  loudest  chorus  would  not  greet 
Dick's  home-coming.  The  face  that  had  smiled  from 
the  head  of  the  table  would  not  turn  fondly  upon  the 
boy  who  held  the  inalienable  place  of  eldest  born.  The 
laugh  that  had  chimed  so  readily,  in  its  softer  key,  with 
the  seldom  silent  mirth  of  the  noisy  brood,  Dick  would 
never  hear  again. 

A  glance  at  the  tall  old-fashioned  clock  in  the  corner 
warned  Bobby  of  the  approaching  school  hour,  and  the 
family  conclave  was  broken  up. 

Time  was  when  the  Dudleys  held  their  heads  as  high 
as  did  any  of  their  neighbors.  If  they  still  did  so,  it 
was  from  the  consciousness  of  past  glories  and  of  innate 
worth  rather  than  from  the  present  possession  of  worldly 
advantages.  The  fine  old  Colonial  mansion,  notwith 
standing  its  crying  need  of  paint  and  repairs,  was  still 
the  show  place  of  Holbrook.  The  roofs  of  the  grapery 
and  hot-house  had  long  ago  fallen  in.  What  had  been 
the  rose  garden,  planted  by  old  Governor  Dudley  him 
self,  was  now  a  thorny  labyrinth,  with  here  and  there 
an  abortive  blossom  to  testify  to  former  beauties.  Of 
the  rare  shrubs  and  trees  set  out  by  successive  genera 
tions  there  remained  only  the  Judas  tree,  whose  trunk, 


THE   CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL  9 

describing  a  right  angle  midway  of  its  growth,  afforded 
an  admirable  seat,  by  sitting  close,  for  the  entire  present 
family. 

By  unreckoned  expenditure,  and  a  mania  for  specu 
lation,  Paul  Dudley  had  speedily  reduced  a  competence 
to  an  income  that  ill-sufficed  for  the  growing  needs  of 
a  large  family.  A  mortgage  was  laid  upon  the  old 
house ;  the  estate,  with  the  exception  of  the  garden  and 
lawn,  was  cut  up  into  building  lots ;  opposite,  a  stately 
mansion,  with  stables  and  conservatories,  arose  to  mock 
the  ruins  of  the  old  Dudley  mansion.  Having  got  his 
affairs  into  inextricable  confusion,  Mr.  Dudley  charac 
teristically  died. 

Chris  and  Nan  were  not  yet  in  long  gowns,  the 
younger  children  were  still  in  the  nursery,  when  the 
day  came  on  which  they  were  indeed  left  alone. 

When  it  was  known  that  they  intended  living,  as 
heretofore,  in  the  home  that  had  been  theirs  for  gener 
ations,  relatives  and  friends  held  up  their  hands  —  an 
attitude  which  is  more  natural  to  most  people  than  to 
hold  them  out — and  exclaimed,  "It  is  not  proper. 
They  should  have  with  them  a  Female  Relative  I "  But 
one  and  all  of  the  young  people,  whether  wisely  or  no, 
scouted  the  phantasm  of  a  chaperone  as  not  only  a  highly 
disagreeable  concession  to  conventionality,  but  unneces 
sary  to  their  own  condition.  The  two  elder  girls  divided 
the  domestic  cares  between  them;  Lou's  part  in  the 
household  economy  was  purely  ornamental. 

Chris  was  now  eighteen.     Long  ago,   Lou,   in   the 


10  THE  CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL 

satisfaction  of  her  golden  hair  and  blue  eyes,  had  said, 
"Chris,  you  can  be  good.  I  am  a  pretty  little  girl." 
To  which  her  sister  answered  thoughtfully,  "No,  I  am 
not  pretty;  but  I  can  be  fascinating."  And  that  reply 
still  embodied  the  elder  girl's  attitude  at  the  age  when 
the  question  of  beauty  is  usually  the  paramount  one 
in  a  girl's  life.  With  practical  wisdom,  too,  Chris  made 
the  most  of  the  good  points  which  in  her  impartial 
self-appraisal  she  knew  were  hers.  Her  eyes  might  be 
small  of  size  and  nondescript  of  color,  her  abundant  dark 
hair  amenable  only  to  painstaking  care;  the  beautiful 
full  curves  of  her  lips,  perfect  teeth,  and  a  graceful 
figure  might  fairly  be  set  on  the  other  side  of  the 
account. 

Nan  was  a  year  younger  than  Chris.  As  she  would 
have  been  satisfied,  for  her  own  portion,  with  nothing 
less  than  the  form  and  features  of  the  Medicean  Venus, 
she  could  see  no  beauty  in  her  own  honest  brown  eyes, 
nor  in  the  silky  hair,  of  curiously  contrasted  shades, 
that  was  always  slipping  from  its  confinement,  partly 
by  reason  of  its  own  weight  and  partly  because  its  owner 
was  too  careless  of  her  personal  appearance  to  take  time 
to  secure  it  properly.  Regret  for  the  past,  hurry  in  the 
present,  and  an  inveterate  habit  of  borrowing  trouble 
for  the  future,  combined  with  near-sighted  vision  to 
give  two  little  wrinkles  between  Nan's  brows  that  at 
times  deepened  to  a  frown  with  which  she  regarded  all 
humanity. 

Lou  had  the  good  looks  of  the  family,  her  sisters  were 


THE   CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL  11 

wont  to  aver,  unchecked  by  Bobby's  indignant  assertion 
of  his  own  symmetry  of  form  and  feature.  Into  Lou's 
lap,  too,  had  fallen  such  rare  plums  of  good  fortune 
as  had  been  vouchsafed  the  young  Dudleys.  Besides 
the  legacy,  she  had  once  been  invited  to  the  mountains 
for  a  week,  by  an  old  friend  of  the  family,  which  gave 
her  a  certain  prestige  in  the  home  circle,  as  one  who  had 
travelled.  Having  attended  school  at  such  times  and 
seasons  as  seemed  good  to  her,  the  preceding  June  she 
had  packed  up  her  books  and  declared  her  education 
finished. 

Nature,  aided  by  devotion  to  athletic  sports,  had  given 
Bobby  a  breadth  of  shoulder  and  depth  of  chest  that 
gallantly  matched  his  height,  so  that  the  designation 
"our  little  brother"  was  one  of  affection  and  contradis 
tinction  rather  than  of  fact.  Bobby's  eyes  were  always 
twinkling  with  the  fun  their  owner  made  for  himself  and 
everybody  else,  and  a  mop  of  curly  brown  hair,  of  the 
season's  fashionable  length,  seemed  to  promise  immunity 
in  the  most  hotly  contested  football  match.  Bobby  was 
just  entering  his  last  year  at  the  High  School.  He  had 
returned,  over  night,  from  a  summer's  camping-out  in 
the  Kangeley  Lakes  in  company  with  Harry  Luce  and 
Jack  Burnham,  his  chosen  friends. 

After  Bobby  came  a  gap  in  the  regularly  descending 
scale  of  ages,  and  the  ranks  were  closed  by  ten-year- 
old  Betty,  plump  and  rosy,  with  wide-open  gray  eyes 
and  thick  brown  hair,  smoothly  braided  into  a  pigtail. 
Her  straight  hair  was  the  one  cross  of  Betty's  life.  A 


12  THE   CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL 

salient  feature  of  her  individuality  was  her  boots.  She 
never  walked  in  them;  she  kicked  and  jumped  and 
stamped  and  pounded.  As  with  the  Psalmist,  who 
"  was  young  and  then  was  old,"  Betty's  boots  knew  no 
intermediate  stage  of  decay.  They  were  new,  with  a 
nerve-rending  creak;  and  they  were  old  and  full  of 
holes.  Their  owner  cherished  a  secret  conviction  that 
the  Brownies  in  whom  she  had  firm  faith  came  by  night 
and  danced  in  them;  but  she  had  never  succeeded  in 
lying  awake  long  enough  to  witness  this  unrighteous 
proceeding.  Betty's  relations  with  the  rest  of  the  family 
were  somewhat  complicated.  She  regarded  Lou  as  her 
equal  and  playfellow,  who  "  put  on  airs  "  when  she  refused 
to  climb  trees  and  promenade  the  tops  of  fences,  or 
to  become  a  member  of  the  juvenile  "Nine"  lately 
organized  in  the  neighborhood.  For  Chris  she  enter 
tained  the  most  unbounded  admiration,  regarding  her 
as  the  very  model  of  young  ladyhood,  whose  words  and 
acts  were  to  be  blindly  imitated  on  every  occasion.  As 
both  Chris  and  Nan  looked  upon  Betty's  bringing  up 
as  her  especial  affair,  and  as  their  ideas  upon  this  subject, 
as  upon  every  other,  were  diametrically  opposed,  the 
proper  behavior  of  their  little  sister  was  a  frequent 
source  of  strife  between  them,  often  fomented  by  Betty 
herself,  who  was  not  slow  to  perceive  that  she  was  sure 
to  be  upheld  by  Chris  in  whatever  course  was  frowned 
upon  by  Nan.  It  was  also  Bobby's  self-imposed  task 
to  see  that  his  little  sister  trod  the  straight  and  narrow 
path  of  decorous  young  maidenhood.  Betty  settled 


THE   CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL  13 

the   vexed  question  of  her  education  by  growing  up 
exactly  as  she  pleased. 

A  few  hours  after  the  discussion  at  the  breakfast- 
table,  the  elder  girls  were  assembled  in  the  sitting-room. 
The  big  mending-basket  was  by  Chris's  side.  Lou  was 
engaged  in  trimming  a  bonnet ;  Nan,  floury  and  dishev 
elled  from  certain  gala  preparations  in  the  kitchen,  rested 
from  her  labors  in  the  springless  depths  of  the  old  sofa. 

"  There  go  Miss  Courtenay  and  Miss  Herbert  1 " 
exclaimed  Chris.  The  younger  girls  crowded  to  the 
window. 

"  What  a  lovely  hat  I "  ejaculated  Lou,  making  sundry 
mental  memoranda,  as  she  scrutinized  Miss  Herbert's 
tailor-made  array.  "  I  might  use  your  old  turban,  Nan, 
to  make  one  like  it." 

"  You  might,  if  you  could  find  it,"  returned  her  sister, 
with  the  promptitude  born  of  past  exigencies,  for  Lou's 
ideas  of  meum  and  tuum,  when  millinery  was  in  question, 
were  none  too  rigidly  defined,  and  she  sometimes  took  an 
unfair  advantage  of  Nan's  heedlessness  to  possess  herself 
of  stray  plumes  or  forgotten  ribbons.  In  times  of  espe 
cial  stress  Nan  had  even  felt  it  advisable  to  take  her  hat 
to  bed  with  her. 

"Miss  Herbert  is  awfully  good  form,  but  she  lacks 
Miss  Courtenay's  charm,  whatever  that  is,"  said  Chris, 
critically. 

"Is  she  pretty?"  queried  the  cook,  subsiding  with 
unwonted  meekness  into  the  background,  at  Chris's 
sharp  remonstance. 


14  THE  CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL 

"  If  you  would  wear  glasses,  you  could  see  for  your 
self  that  she  is  very  handsome,"  was  the  tart  reply,  for 
Chris's  equanimity  was  always  disturbed  by  any  ripple 
of  social  stir,  however  remote,  that  reached  her  lonely 
strand.  Besides,  Nan,  detesting  the  formalities  of  social 
intercourse,  and  cherishing  a  grudge  against  the  people 
who  had  possessed  themselves  of  "our  land,"  had  de 
clined  to  accompany  her  sister  in  the  call  enjoined  by 
etiquette  upon  their  neighbor's  guest. 

"  The  trouble  with  Miss  Herbert  is  that  she  is  a  little 
too  nice  to  be  interesting,"  went  on  Chris,  whose  busk 
and  buckram,  carefully  adjusted  for  society,  or  donned 
as  armor  in  her  warfare  with  Nan,  was  generally  laid 
aside  in  the  abandon  of  the  home  circle.  "  She  pauses 
before  every  remark,  to  arrange  its  syntax  and  give  you 
time  to  reflect  what  a  fool  you  made  of  yourself  by  your 
last  one.  Holbrook  will  be  gayer  than  ever  this  winter, 
there  will  be  so  many  congratulatory  teas  and  things," 
added  the  girl,  wistfully. 

"Who  told  you  she  and  Mr.  Louis  Courtenay  were 
engaged?"  queried  Lou;  for  Chris,  despite  her  social 
isolation,  contrived  to  be  conversant  with  all  the  current 
gossip,  and  even  to  assume  an  air  of  authority  upon  it. 

"Everybody  says  so,"  she  answered,  with  her  most 
positive  air.  "They  came  home  on  the  same  boat;  the 
deck  of  an  ocean  steamer  is  a  place  where  people  al 
ways  get  engaged,"  she  added,  with  the  easy  allusion  of 
one  who  has  "  crossed  "  many  times. 

"  How  did  she  dare  fall  in  love  with  him  ?  "  said  Nan, 


THE  CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL       15 

thoughtfully.  "  He  is  n't  real.  He  is  too  perfect  to  be 
flesh  and  blood.  Some  day  that  well-groomed  phantasm 
will  vanish,  like  the  false  and  fair  Florimel,  and  leave 
only  his  girdle,  or,  more  appropriately,  his  suspenders, 
behind.  I  don't  believe  his  own  mother  ever  calls 
him  Louis." 

"  As  Mrs.  Courtenay  never  calls  anybody  or  anything 
by  its  right  name,  it  is  quite  as  probable  that  she  ad 
dresses  him  as  Joseph,"  suggested  Chris.  "If  I  were 
Mrs.  Courtenay,  I  think  I  could  spend  my  tune  more 
profitably  than  in  guessing  Biblical  conundrums,  fond 
ling  that  wretched  poodle,  and  going  to  town  to  hunt 
for  'remnants.'  There  isn't  even  the  crumpled  rose- 
leaf  in  the  Courtenays'  life,"  the  girl  went  on  discon 
tentedly  ;  "  Miss  Meg  would  not  wear  that  serene  smiling 
face,  if  she  knew  anything  of  the  petty  vexations  that 
beset  other  people !  "  Chris  jerked  her  needle  so  sharply 
as  to  break  the  thread  with  which  she  was  sewing  up  a 
jagged  rent  in  Betty's  frock.  "  I  do  wish  Betty  would 
take  pattern  by  that  ladylike  little  Maud  Courtenay," 
she  added,  as  a  loud  "  Ul-la-loo-oo  1 "  from  without  an 
nounced  their  little  sister's  return  from  school. 


16       THE  CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL 


CHAPTER  TWO 

BOBBY  was  known  throughout  Holbrook  as  the 
champion  at  tennis  and  golf.  He  was  stroke  on 
the  Holbrook  crew  in  the  interscholastic  boat-races, 
he  had  been  on  the  staff  of  the  Snark  —  the  school 
journal  —  since  his  entrance  to  the  school,  and  this  year 
was  to  be  its  editor-in-chief.  For  the  preceding  twelve 
months  he  had  adorned  the  position  of  captain  of  the  foot 
ball  team,  an  office  never  before  held  by  a  member  of 
the  Middle  Class,  and  was  pointed  out  to  adoring 
Juniors  as  the  fellow  who  on  the  first  day  of  practice 
had  dodged  past  half  of  the  first  Eleven  and  scored  a 
touchdown,  and  who  made  the  prettiest  tackles  ever 
seen  on  the  field.  But  what  were  any  or  all  of  these 
distinctions  compared  to  that  of  being  Captain  of  the 
School,  with  rank  proclaimed  to  the  nether  world  by 
a  glittering  uniform,  a  sword  dangling  by  his  side — and 
frequently  getting  between  his  legs  —  and  a  decoration 
on  his  cap  that  held  the  eye  of  the  beholder  like  unto 
the  rising  sun! 

When  "the  slate"  was  made  up  at  the  caucus  held 
just  before  the  close  of  school,  no  other  name  than 
Bobby's  was  even  thought  of  for  the  position.  So, 
with  mind  at  ease  regarding  his  coming  honor,  and 
no  important  work  being  done  in  the  school-room  until 


THE   CAPTAIN  OF   THE  SCHOOL  17 

the  classes  were  organized,  Bobby  had  lingered  in 
the  Maine  Woods  with  Lucy  —  at  whose  expense  he 
was  enjoying  himself  —  while  Jack  Burnham  had  re 
turned  to  be  present  at  the  formal  election  of  officers, 
now  a  week  ago. 

"Bobby!" 

As  the  word  was  passed  from  one  to  another,  the 
boys  scattered  about  the  school  yard  gave  the  Hoi- 
brook  yell  with  a  vigor  that  caused  Mr.  Shattuck,  at 
an  upper  window,  to  glance  anxiously  at  the  panes. 
A  handshaking  and  back-pounding  ensued  that  bid 
fair  to  demolish  the  object  of  its  welcome.  Bobby's 
voice  and  laugh  were  heard  above  the  others  as  question 
and  exclamation  tumbled  one  upon  another,  no  one 
pausing  for  response,  till  Bobby,  whose  eyes  had  been 
roving  hither  and  thither  throughout  the  merry  hubbub, 
asked,  — 

"Where's  Jack?"  adding  absently,  "What's  that 
about  going  West,  Larry  ?  Who 's  going  West  ? " 

A  sudden  recollection  of  something  forgotten  in  the 
moment's  excitement  seemed  to  sweep  over  the  boys  and 
hold  their  speech.  Lucy's  high-pitched  voice,  from  the 
edge  of  the  crowd,  broke  the  silence. 

"  Bobby  —  I  say,  Bobby  I  The  fellows  have  gone  and 
elected  Jack  Burnham  Captain!" 

The  sense  of  the  words  was  too  incredible  for  Bobby 
to  grasp,  and  his  friend's  name  was  all  that  reached  his 
understanding.  Where  was  Jack  ?  Why  was  not  Jack 
at  hand  to  greet  him  ?  He  gave  the  call  with  which  he 

2 


18       THE  CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL 

and  his  chum  were  wont  to  signal  each  other,  —  repeated 
it  again  and  once  again.  Jack  could  not  be  within 
hearing,  for  when,  before,  had  that  far-carrying  yodel 
failed  of  its  answer? 

"Where's  Jack  —  what's  happened  to  Jack?"  he 
questioned  blankly. 

The  boys  were  looking  at  one  another  in  an  odd, 
questioning  way.  It  was  not  even  a  vague  conception 
of  something  wrong  in  the  situation  that  held  their 
speech,  but  merely  a  general  feeling  of  embarrassment ; 
each  waited  for  his  neighbor  to  speak.  For  the  first 
time  Bobby  noticed  that  Taffy  Dabney  wore  the  straps 
of  first  lieutenant,  and  that  Larry  Lyman's  sleeve  bore 
the  chevron  of  second  sergeant. 

"  You  did  n't  go  by  *  the  slate '  ? "  he  queried  with  a 
surprise  that  seemed  to  surprise  his  fellows.  "What 
made  you  change  it?" 

There  was  still  no  answer. 

"Who  are  the  other  officers?"  asked  Bobby,  with 
growing  indignation  that  he,  the  acknowledged  leader  of 
the  school,  should  have  been  ignored  in  this  incom 
prehensible  rearrangement. 

"Lucy  is  first  sergeant,  and  Peddy  Seaton  second 
lieutenant,"  voluntered  Taffy  Dabney,  at  last. 

"And  what  have  you  done  about  Jack?"  thundered 
Bobby,  turning  upon  the  last  speaker.  "  Who  told  you 
you  could  be  first  lieutenant  ?  If  Jack  has  been  left  out 
in  this  precious  muddle,  you  can  get  another  Captain ! " 
Bobby's  clinched  fists,  as  he  confronted  Taffy,  looked  so 


THE  CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL  19 

ominously  like  business  that  the  new-made  lieutenant 
backed  into  the  crowd,  now  on  tiptoe  with  excitement. 

"  Here 's  Jack  1 "  shouted  Lucy,  from  the  background. 

There  was  an  audible  sigh  of  relief  as  the  boys  fell 
back  to  make  way  for  the  new-comer,  who  presently 
found  himself,  seemingly  without  his  own  volition,  in 
the  centre  of  the  circle,  face  to  face  with  Bobby. 

Jack  Burnham  wore  the  uniform  of  Captain  1 

For  the  space  of  a  few  seconds  Bobby  stood  silent  and 
motionless ;  the  glittering  epaulets,  the  burnished  sword, 
the  insignia  on  the  cap,  seemed  to  be  burning  themselves 
into  his  brain.  In  some  way  not  yet  understood,  but 
which  would  doubtless  readily  be  explained,  Jack  had 
been  elected  Captain  in  his  place.  In  Bobby's  mind  was 
no  distrust  of  his  friend ;  only  a  vague  wonder  that  Jack 
did  not  speak  and  clear  up  the  situation. 

The  crowd  now  included  nearly  every  boy  in  the 
school.  The  girls  were  on  the  outskirts  of  the  excited 
throng.  The  later  arrivals,  inquiring  "What's  the 
row?"  without  receiving  any  answer,  were  struggling 
to  get  near  the  chief  actors  in  the  scene.  Lucy  succeeded 
in  thrusting  and  wriggling  himself  forward,  till,  red  as  a 
little  turkey-cock,  he  stood  by  Bobby's  side,  confronting 
Jack  Burnham.  In  moments  of  excitement,  stammering 
got  the  better  of  little  Lucy's  powers  of  speech. 

"  You  —  you — you  —  cheat  1    You  —  you  —  li  —  I  " 

A  heavy  hand  was  kid  upon  his  shoulder. 

"  Quit  1 "  said  Bobby,  sternly. 

"  I  won't  quit  1 "  sputtered  Lucy,  trying  to  wriggle 


20       THE  CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL 

out  of  the  iron  grip  and  gesticulating  frantically  at  the 
Captain.  Bobby  made  only  partial  sense  of  the  inco 
herent  storming.  Lucy  was  always  mixing  things  up; 
but  really,  his  present  tempest  was  too  idiotic  to  be 
worth  noticing ;  Bobby  laughed  and  relaxing  his  grasp  of 
his  little  henchman,  gave  him  a  good-natured  shove. 

"  Lucy,  you  make  me  tired,"  he  said. 

"  Jack  Burnham  told  the  fellows  you  were  going  out 
West  and  so  they  put  him  in  Captain  instead  of  you," 
shouted  Lucy,  without  punctuation,  but  forgetting  to 
stammer. 

Still  Bobby  refused  credence  to  so  monstrous  a  state 
ment.  Only  from  Jack's  lips  would  he  receive  corrob- 
oration  of  such  a  yarn,  and  from  him  it  was  impossible. 
He  turned,  still  half  laughing,  to  his  friend. 

For  the  space  of  a  few  seconds  he  stood  silent  and 
motionless.  Jack's  face  was  deathly  pale;  his  lips  were 
quivering,  his  knees  knocking  together.  The  very  un 
expectedness  of  the  revelation,  that  at  the  first  shock 
stunned  him,  now  sharpened  Bobby's  wits,  and  the  whole 
situation  was  bare  before  him. 

He  had  been  tricked  by  his  own  familiar  friend.  Jack 
Burnham  was  indeed  a  cheat  and  a  liar. 

Bobby's  hands  clenched ;  he  took  a  step  forward.  He 
did  not  know  what  held  him  from  knocking  Jack  down 
and  shouting  the  truth  to  the  waiting  crowd.  The  wild 
anger  that  surged  through  his  brain  rang  in  his  ears 
and  blinded  him;  a  curious  sensation  of  nausea  almost 
overcame  him. 


THE   CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL  21 

"  A  new  election,  a  new  election ! "  shouted  Lucy, 
capering  about  and  gesticulating  wildly. 

Bobby's  whirling  brain  re-echoed  the  words.  A  new 
election  would  infallibly  make  him  Captain,  and  as 
inevitably  send  Jack  Burnham  to  Coventry.  How  terri 
ble  a  fate  that  would  be  to  Jack,  none  knew  so  well  as 
his  friend.  The  crowd  hung,  breathless,  on  Bobby's 
word. 

Unseen  by  any  but  Bobby,  a  look  of  piteous  appeal 
had  come  into  the  eyes  that  were  shifting  before  his  own 
direct,  scornful  gaze.  Bobby's  hand  relaxed.  The  word 
upon  his  lips  was  stifled.  Somewhere,  somehow,  out  of 
the  reserve  forces  of  his  nature,  was  born  his  resolution, 
and  quick  upon  it  he  acted. 

"  I  am  going  out  West,"  he  said  calmly. 

The  boys  gave  vent  to  their  pent-up  excitement  in  a 
rousing  cheer,  repeated  and  reiterated,  and  winding  up 
with  the  Holbrook  yell.  There  was  no  exhilaration  in 
their  voices.  It  was  merely  that  something  had  dropped 
out  of  their  throats  and  they  had  to  yell. 

Lucy  took  no  part  in  the  ensuing  hubbub  of  exclama 
tion  and  question.  "  Oh,  Bobby,  don't  go  !  What  '11 
the  football  team  do?  Who'U  be  editor?  Who'll  be 
Captain  of  the  Canoe  Club?  Who'll  be  Captain  of  the 
Nine?  We'll  lose  the  tennis  cup  —  and  the  golf  cup. 
Wow,  wow,  wow !  "  While  a  feebler  chorus  on  the  out 
side  of  the  crowd  echoed,  "  Who  '11  lead  the  German  ? 
Who'll  dance  the  two-step?" 

"  I  'm  going  as  soon  as  I  hear  from  Dick.     I  've  been 


22  THE  CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL 

thinking  of  out  West  for  ever  so  long.  I  thought  I  'd 
drop  around  and  see  you  fellows  to-day.  I  shall  have 
my  hands  full,  the  next  week  or  two,  getting  my  outfit 
together.  I  say,  Lucy,  quit !  "  for  Lucy  was  pounding 
Bobby's  back  in  excess  of  emotion.  "You  have  a  fist 
like  a  trip-hammer." 

"I'm  going  with  you,"  cried  Lucy.  "I  have  some 
money  in  the  bank,  and  I  '11  get  a  revolver  and  a  horse 
and  Western  toggery.  I'm  almost  as  good  a  shot  as 
you  and  don't  scare  worth  a  cent."  His  eyes  sparkled 
as  this  happy  solution  of  the  question  arose  before  him. 

"  You  will  do  nothing  of  the  sort,"  returned  Bobby, 
crushingly.  "You  will  stay  at  home  and  learn  your 
lessons  and  grow  up  a  respectable  member  of  society. 
Besides,  you  would  be  homesick  on  the  plains.  There 
would  be  nobody  for  you  to  be  smitten  on  but  Indian 
squaws,  who  are  old  and  ugly  and  smoke-dried,  and 
gobble  up  little  boys  who  run  away  from  home." 

Unobserved,  Jack  Burnham  had  stolen  from  the  crowd. 

At  recess,  Bobby,  in  the  highest  spirits,  proposed  a 
farewell  "treat,"  and  the  horde  of  hungry  schoolboys 
started  on  a  raid  upon  the  "Empire  Emporium,"  —  an 
establishment  that  catered  chiefly  to  the  demands  of  the 
boys,  with  a  branch  devoted  to  the  tastes  of  younger 
patrons.  In  the  one  dingy  little  window  was  displayed 
the  placard,  "  New  and  Original  Novelties  1 "  surmounting 
a  four-in-hand  necktie  of  "  Centennial "  pattern,  tintypes 
of  "Abraham  Lincoln  and  his  Family,"  and  a  few  pe 
riodicals  whose  dates  were  carefully  concealed  from 


THE  CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL       23 

the  public  view.  The  signboard  of  the  Emporium  bore 
the  name  " G.  William; "  but  the  proprietor  —  a  hollow- 
chested,  pink-eyed  youth  —  had  been  promptly  rechris- 
tened  Griffith  Bill,  shortened  for  every-day  use  to  Griff. 

"Hi,  Griff  1" 

The  shopkeeper  grinned  with  vacuous  delight  as  he 
nearly  doubled  up  under  Bobby's  thump  on  his  back,  and 
hastened  to  obey  the  mandate,  — 

"  Turnovers  for  the  crowd  I  Any  root  beer  that  did  n't 
come  over  in  the  Mayflower  ?  Griff,  if  you  try  to  palm 
off  your  stale  goods  on  us  this  year,  as  you  did  last,  we 
shall  transfer  our  custom  to  some  other  Emporium. 
You  're  getting  rich  too  fast.  We  can't  have  any  more 
bloated  aristocrats  around  here.  Lucy  is  enough  for  one 
community." 

Lucy,  after  strolling  about  the  shop,  thrusting  his 
impertinent  little  nose  into  everything  that  aroused  his 
curiosity,  and  accompanying  his  investigations  by  a  run 
ning  fire  of  tormenting  comment,  laid  hold  of  a  fish-horn 
and  proceeded  to  make  such  a  din  that  several  of  his 
mates  wrested  his  possession  from  him.  Then  Bobby 
seated  him  high  upon  an  empty  shelf,  where  Lucy  sat 
swinging  his  legs  and  whistling  thoughtfully.  Never 
had  Bobby's  fun  and  laughter  been  more  contagious! 
At  last,  cakes  and  turnovers  in  hand,  the  boys  rushed 
from  the  shop,  leaving  Lucy  on  his  perch.  Speech  was 
a  necessity  with  little  Lucy,  and  he  proceeded  to  pour 
forth  his  pent-up  feelings  into  the  first  channel  that 
offered  itself. 


24  THE   CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL 

"Griff!" 

"  Hi ! "  responded  the  shopkeeper,  in  a  feeble,  piping 
imitation  of  Bobby's  ringing  tones. 

"  You  should  say,  '  What,  sir  ? ' "  said  Lucy,  reprov 
ingly,  pointing  his  forefinger  at  Griff's  waistband,  and 
grinning  with  delight  as  the  vacuous  youth  doubled  up 
under  the  occult  influence  of  this  demonstration. 

" '  Something  is  rotten  in  the  state  of  Denmark,' " 
proclaimed  Lucy. 

"  I  did  n't  know  it,  I  'm  sure  —  " 

"  Sir,"  corrected  Lucy,  frowning. 

"I'm,  sir,  sure,"  repeated  Griff,  apologetically.  "I 
haven't  read  the  news.  You  see  I  have  to  get  up 
pretty  early  to  deliver  the  morning  papers,  and  then  I 
must  open  up  here  and  be  on  hand  to  attend  to  trade. 
I  did  see  that  the  Queen  of  Holland  was  married, 
though,"  he  added,  brightening. 

"Are  you  a  fool  by  force  of  circumstance,  or  were 
you  born  so?"  queried  Lucy,  with  fair  and  feigned 
solicitude. 

"I  don't  know  —  I  guess  —  I'll  ask  ma,"  quavered 
Griff, -who  always  lost  the  few  wits  he  had  under  these 
scathing  cross-examinations. 

"I'm  going  to  tell  you  something,  Griff,"  went  on 
Lucy ;  "  only  mind,  if  you  blow  —  "  He  slowly  raised 
his  index  finger,  and  the  miserable  youth  collapsed  as 
though  hinged  in  the  middle.  "  Bobby  is  n't  Captain,  and 
there's  been  some  trick  played,  I  'm  sure,  though  Bobby 
pretends  it's  on  the  square.  You  didn't  know  that 


THE   CAPTAIN  OF  THE   SCHOOL  25 

Bobby  had  a  brother  out  West,  Griff,  because  you  don't 
know  anything,  and  even  that  you  're  not  sure  of." 

"  Bobby  —  going  —  out  West  1 " 

Griff's  chin  dropped,  and  a  peculiarly  vacant  expres 
sion  came  into  his  eyes,  as  though  they  were  turned 
inward. 

"  When  you  do  that,  you  look  more  like  an  idiot 
than  ever,"  said  Lucy.  It  was  seldom,  indeed,  that 
he  was  out  of  temper,  but  Bobby's  theory  that  snubbing 
was  healthy  for  his  valiant  little  henchman  had  failed, 
that  morning,  to  bear  fruit.  "  Bobby  did  talk,  when 
we  wore  at  Rangeley,"  he  continued,  "about  going 
West.  It  was  one  morning,  in  particular,  after  we  'd 
been  fishing.  But  I  know  he  had  no  more  real  idea 
of  going,  then,  than  either  Jack  or  I.  That  was  why 
Jack  was  in  such  a  precious  hurry  to  get  home,  when 
Bobby  and  I  wanted  to  go  up  the  Cupsuptic.  By 
cracky! "  — a  mysterious  adjuration  used  by  Lucy  when 
laboring  under  the  greatest  excitement,  "just  you  wait 
till  I  get  the  cinch  on  Jack  Burnham !  I  '11  bet  any 
thing  you  like  against  your  Emporium  that  Bobby  never 
said  a  word  to  Jack  at  Rangeley  that  I  did  n't  hear." 

"  Oh,  no  1 "  Griff  hastened  to  reassure  his  guest. 

"  If  you  mean  anything  by  that,  come  on  1 "  said  Lucy, 
doubling  up  his  fists. 

"  Oh,  but  I  did  n't,"  answered  the  young  shopkeeper, 
in  alarm.  "I  —  I  never  mean  anything." 

"Griff,  I  pity  your  family  for  having  to  live  with 
such  a  creature,"  sighed  Lucy. 


26       THE  CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL 

"It  was  the  way  it  was  worked  at  the  Chicago  Con 
vention,"  said  Griff,  with  a  puny  effort  to  vindicate  his 
intelligence.  "  Jack  Burnham  was  clever." 

Lucy  slid  from  his  perch,  and  almost  choking  with 
wrath,  advanced  upon  Griff,  who,  retreating  step  by  step, 
brought  up  against  the  wall,  where  he  stood  with  shak 
ing  knees,  while  Lucy  gesticulated  threateningly  before 
him. 

"  That 's  what  you  call  clever,  is  it  ?  It 's  no  wonder 
that  white  folks  won't  go  into  politics." 

"I  —  I  guess  I  wouldn't  say  anything," advised  Griff. 
"  It 's  generally  best  to  let  things  go." 

"  Maybe  it  is — for  worms,"  retorted  Lucy,  "  and  that 
is  why  they  get  trod  on." 

"  If  Bobby  really  goes  West,  I  don't  know  what  I 
shall  do,"  said  Griff,  drawing  a  rag  from  his  pocket 
and  applying  a  corner  to  his  red  eyelids.  "I  know  I 
—  should  —  should  —  feel  tur'ble." 

"  You  would  not  feel  *  tur'ble,' "  returned  Lucy,  with 
decision.  "There  is  no  such  word,  and  consequently 
no  such  emotion,  in  the  English  language.  I  wish  you 
would  pay  more  attention  to  your  parts  of  speech,  Griff," 
he  went  on  severely.  "That  new  placard  of  yours  is 
really  painful  to  the  educated  eye.  *  Look !  The  Cheapest 
in  the  World!  And  Come  In.'  If  you  will  tell  me 
what  that  *  And '  joins  together  —  it  is  a  rule  of  rhetoric 
that  a  conjunction  should  connect  something  —  I  'd 
be  eternally  obliged.  And  your  goods  are  not  the 
cheapest  in  the  world.  They  are  the  dearest  —  and 


THE  CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL       27 

the  worst.  Besides,"  added  Lucy,  with  flagrant  dis 
regard  of  his  own  strictures  in  the  use  of  conjunctions, 
"  what  is  it  to  you  whether  Bobby  goes  or  stays  ?  He 
never  notices  you  unless  you  are  under  his  feet.  You 
couldn't  touch  him  with  a  ten-foot  pole." 

And  the  shopkeeper  looked  miserably  aware  of  the 
truth  of  his  tormentor's  words. 

After  Lucy's  departure,  Griff  took  down  his  ledger 
and  gazed  long  and  lovingly  at  the  list  of  items  on  a 
certain  page. 

"  If  Bobby  does  really  go  West,"  he  thought,  feeling 
for  his  handkerchief  again,  "  I  '11  make  him  a  present  of 
the  receipted  bill." 

Bobby  remained  closeted  with  Mr.  Shattuck  for  some 
tune  after  the  close  of  the  session.  It  was  no  secret  in 
the  school  that  he  was  prime  favorite  with  the  gentle, 
kindly  old  man,  who  had  presided  over  the  education  of 
several  generations  of  Holbrook  schoolboys.  When  a 
young  man,  Mr.  Shattuck  had  taken  his  degree  at  the 
bar,  but  being  penniless,  had  accepted  the  position  of 
principal  of  the  high  school  in  his  native  town,  hoping 
to  work  his  way  gradually  into  the  practice  of  his 
legitimate  profession.  But  tune  went  on,  and  one  day 
he  made  the  discovery  that  he  was  past  middle  age,  and 
that  something  had  stolen  over  his  ambition,  —  nay,  his 
very  faculties.  He  had  long  ago  ceased  to  attend  the 
Barristers'  Club,  of  which  he  was  once  regarded  as  a 
shining  light,  and  had  lost  sight  of  his  classmates,  with 
the  exception  of  his  former  chum,  Judge  Luce,  with 


28  THE  CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL 

whom  he  still  spent  an  occasional  evening  of  reminiscent 
enjoyment. 

"If  you  have  fully  made  up  your  mind  to  go,  God 
bless  you,  Bobby,"  said  the  old  man,  "  although  I  hoped 
for  another  career  for  you.  I  have  never  had  a  pupil 
who  seemed  to  me  so  fitted,  by  every  natural  endowment, 
for  the  Bar.  I  thought,  too,  that  though  active  service 
was  forbidden  me,  I  might  be  permitted  to  aid  in  fitting 
out  a  substitute.  My  law  library  was  considered,  in  its 
day,  a  fine  one."  Only  the  tremor  in  Mr.  Shattuck's 
voice  hinted  of  that  dead  ambition. 

His  sisters  were  awaiting  Bobby  on  the  piazza.  Chris 
was  flourishing  her  mending,  Nan  brandishing  her  apron, 
Lou  waving  the  new  bonnet,  while  Betty  hopped  wildly 
about,  getting  into  everybody's  way. 

"You'll  look  awfully  swell  in  your  uniform,"  cried 
Chris.  "  You  're  the  tallest  Captain  the  school  ever  had ; 
I  wish  you'd  cut  your  hair,  a  military  clip  is  so 
stunning  1 " 

"  Everybody  voted  for  you,  of  course  ?  "  queried  Nan, 
eagerly. 

"I  drilled  you,  Bobby.  I  think  you  ought  to  make 
me  aid,"  chimed  in  Lou. 

"We've  real  'lection  cake  for  dessert,  Bobby,"  an 
nounced  Betty.  "It's  a  surprisement.  I  helped  stone 
the  raisins.  It  has  *H.  H.  S.'  in  pink  curlicues,  on 
the  roof.  You  '11  let  me  take  a  little  teenty-tonty  piece 
to  school,  won't  you,  for  Evangeline?  She  doesn't 
have  plum  cake  at  her  house." 


THE   CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL  29 

"  I  'm  not  Captain,"  said  Bobby,  quietly,  with  one  foot 
on  the  stairs. 

"Not  Captain  I  Who  is?"  came  in  an  amazed  trio, 
with  the  whimper,  solo,  "Ooo  —  hoo!  Then — we  — 
can't  have  any  'lection  cake  I " 


30  THE   CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL 


CHAPTER  THREE 

A  NETWORK  of  strings  traversed  Bobby's  room,  some 
apparently  running  wild,  others  connecting  with 
mysterious  arrangements  of  blocks  and  pulleys,  by  which 
Bobby,  while  in  bed  or  at  his  labors  at  the  desk,  could 
by  a  dexterous  jerk  bring  down  the  window-curtain, 
open  the  door,  or  cause  a  pillow,  nicely  balanced  on  its 
lintel,  to  descend  upon  the  head  of  the  unwary  visitor. 
A  string  attached  to  a  cracked  dinner-bell  was  fastened 
to  the  head-board  of  the  bed,  and  running  through  a  hole 
in  the  floor,  was  secured  in  like  manner  in  the  room 
below.  Lou  was  afflicted  with  the  nightly  conviction 
that  the  house  was  to  be  robbed,  and  that  her  room  was 
the  objective  point  of  the  burglar's  covetous  desires. 
Her  last  act,  before  going  to  bed,  was  to  conceal  her 
hat  or  bonnet  on  the  top  shelf  of  the  closet,  behind 
an  artful  array  of  boxes  and  bundles,  being  apparently 
possessed  by  the  idea  that  the  burglar  wanted  it  for  his 
wife.  Then  she  sank  to  peaceful  slumber,  in  undis 
turbed  reliance  on  her  little  brother's  stalwart  arm  and 
the  weapon  that  reposed  within  its  nightly  grasp, — a 
policeman's  billy  without  any  lead  in  it,  presumably 
deemed  efficacious  for  the  moral  force  that  might  linger 
about  it ;  and  in  happy  ignorance  of  the  fact  that  Bobby 
had  long  ago  removed  the  tongue  of  the  bell,  after  being 


THE  CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL  31 

aroused  sundry  times  on  false  alarms  by  a  discordant 
ding  dong  in  his  ears. 

Another  string  rang  out  of  the  window  to  enter,  in  a 
house  not  far  distant,  the  room  occupied  by  Jack  Burn- 
ham.  When  some  scheme  of  mutual  interest  required 
attention  in  the  early  hours,  one  end  of  this  string  was 
tied  to  the  great  toe  of  either  boy,  the  plan  being  that 
the  one  who  awakened  first  was  to  arouse  the  other  by  a 
vigorous  pull  at  his  end  of  the  line.  But  however  admi 
rable  in  theory,  the  invention  was  not  without  its  flaw  in 
practice ;  for  lulled  into  false  security  by  the  expectation 
of  being  aroused  in  due  season  by  a  friendly  tug  at  his 
toe,  both  boys  slept  peacefully  on  till  breakfast-time. 

On  one  side  of  the  room  was  a  star  formed  by  bats, 
foils,  a  paddle,  and  a  tennis  racket.  The  remaining  wall 
space  was  covered  with  pictures  of  battles,  executions, 
and  shipwrecks,  cut  from  the  illustrated  newspapers, 
and  colored  after  a  broad  method,  all  Bobby's  own,  with 
paints  filched  from  Nan's  studio.  At  one  end  of  the 
room  was  a  bench  piled  high  with  bottles  containing 
mysterious  compounds  of  divers  colors  and  densities, 
boxes  of  various  sizes  and  unknown  uses,  coils  of  wire, 
tangles  of  string,  nails,  screws,  carpenters'  tools,  old 
mustard  cans,  lumps  of  rosin,  junks  of  tar,  balls  of  clay, 
several  jack-knives,  —  none  with  a  complement  of  blades, 
— a  jelly  pot  of  flour  paste  with  a  silver  tablespoon 
imbedded  in  it,  a  collection  of  bugs,  a  preserve-jar  im 
prisoning  a  little  green  snake  —  and  an  unwashed  kettle 
indifferently  used  to  melt  lead  and  to  cook  "  pemmican," 


32       THE  CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL 

concocted  after  an  original  recipe,  when  a  course  of 
De  Long  and  Nansen  had  inspired  Bobby  with  ambition 
to  discover  the  North  Pole.  Although  derided  in  the 
home-circle,  the  "  pemmican  "  would  no  doubt  have  been 
devoured  gladly  by  the  gallant  Arctic  explorer  —  in  the 
stage  of  starvation  succeeding  that  in  which  he  had 
eaten  his  boots.  Over  this  bench  was  a  placard,  in  flar 
ing  letters,  designed  to  ward  off  Chris's  duster  and 
Betty's  prying  fingers,  —  "  Dynamite  111" 

On  the  bureau  was  the  photograph  of  a  group  of 
boys,  eleven  in  number,  clad  in  knickerbockers,  and  in 
sweaters  emblazoned  with  a  huge  "  H."  A  little  fellow 
with  dark  curly  hair  and  eyes  with  an  unmistakable 
twinkle  sat,  Turk-fashion,  in  the  foreground,  with  the 
big  ball  clasped  lovingly  in  both  arms.  Behind  Lucy 
was  seated  George  Dabney,  a  fat  boy  with  a  solemn 
face  and  bristly  hair  that,  erecting  itself  over  round  eyes 
and  elevated  eyebrows,  gave  him  the  appearance  of 
having  just  seen  a  ghost.  On  either  side  of  Taffy 
Dabney  sat  Frank  Seaton,  whose  eyeglasses,  stock  of 
general  information,  and  an  omnivorous  habit  of  reading 
had  won  for  him  the  sobriquet  of  Pedagogue,  shortened, 
for  convenience,  to  Peddy ;  and  Herbert  Lyman,  a  pleas 
ant-faced  lad,  commonly  known  as  Larry,  for  no  other  ap 
parent  reason  than  because  that  was  not  his  name.  In 
the  background  stood  the  big  tackle,  Wilbur  —  or  Hay ti 
—  Richards,  the  evolution  of  whose  nickname  presented 
a  study  in  schoolboy  philology,  —  Wilbur,  Wib,  Web, 
Cobweb,  Cobby,  Cuba,  Hayti. 


THE  CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL       33 

Towering  above  the  other  members  of  the  football 
team,  stood  Bobby,  with  his  arm  linked  in  that  of  a 
tall,  slender  lad  with  a  delicate  oval  face  and  fair  hair 
cut  straight  across  a  handsome  forehead;  the  mouth 
was  beautiful  in  its  curves  of  almost  girlish  sensitive 
ness,  but  the  chin,  though  well  moulded,  receded  too 
much  for  character.  About  the  room  were  other 
photographs  of  the  same  boy  in  various  attitudes, 
but  always  arm  in  arm  with  Bobby,  and  always,  as 
though  by  some  natural  law  of  attraction  and  support, 
leaning  slightly  toward  the  more  stalwart  lad. 

Conspicuous  on  the  bookshelf  was  the  "Life  of 
Daniel  Webster,"  a  volume  whose  shabby  covers  and 
well-worn  leaves  testified  to  the  devotion  with  which 
it  had  been  read.  Before  the  old-fashioned  desk  was  a 
chair,  forever  glorious  in  the  eyes  of  its  present  owner 
as  having  once  belonged  to  the  great  "  Expounder  of  the 
Constitution,"  before  his  name  was  spoken  beyond  the 
confines  of  a  country  village.  It  was  a  black-painted, 
ugly  little  chair,  incommodious  of  seat  and  disquieting 
of  motion,  with  short  and  stubbed  rockers  that  might 
well  have  taught  the  incipient  statesman  the  instability 
of  human  greatness.  Somewhere  in  Bobby's  mind, 
never  expressed,  and  but  vaguely  realized  even  by 
himself,  lay  the  thought  that  about  the  chair  hovered 
all  the  poetry  and  possibilities  of  a  pre-eminent  man 
hood,  as  hi  that  obscure  New  Hampshire  law  office, 
before  Daniel  Webster  went  forth  to  his  great  career. 

Bobby's  head  had  rested  on  his  outstretched  arms 

3 


34       THE  CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL 

since  twilight  fell  on  the  letter  upon  which  he  had 
been  laboriously  engaged  since  his  return  from  school. 

"  Robin,  Robin  1 "  called  a  voice  at  the  door. 

"Come  in,"  responded  Bobby,  seizing  his  pen  and 
assuming  a  preoccupied  air. 

"How  can  I  come  hi  when  the  door  is  locked?" 
queried  Lou,  plaintively.  "Or  do  you  expect  me  to 
enter  like  a  witch,  through  the  key-hole?" 

The  door  was  flung  violently  back. 

"What  do  you  want?"  demanded  Bobby,  gruffly. 

"  Supper  is  ready.  I  thought  you  might  be  hungry," 
hesitated  Lou.  "You  didn't  have  any  dinner,  you 
know;  none  of  us  would  touch  the  cake,  not  even 
Betty.  We  don't  want  to  sit  down  at  the  table  again 
without  you,  Robin  love." 

Lou,  who  had  tried  to  guard  her  lips  from  any 
expression  of  ungrateful  sympathy,  at  this  unfortunate 
slip  turned  to  flee,  followed  by  the  response,  made  with 
labored  indifference,  — 

"  Did  n't  hear  the  supper-bell.    I  '11  be  down  in  a  jiff !  " 

The  others  had  learnt,  ere  this,  who  was  Captain,  from 
Susie  Grossman,  Lou's  most  intimate  friend,  who  had 
been  amongst  the  girls  on  the  parade  ground  when  the 
exciting  scene  of  the  morning  took  place. 

Bobby  entered  the  dining-room  almost  as  soon  as  Lou, 
by  way  of  a  short  cut  over  the  baluster,  with  a  jovial 
greeting  that  deceived  nobody,  and  with  hair  belabored 
to  such  satin  smoothness  as  to  betray  the  fact  that 
emotion  had  recently  set  it  on  end.  He  bore  his  part 


THE   CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL  35 

manfully,  both  in  talking  and  eating,  throughout  the 
meal,  and  when  they  were  all  assembled  afterward  in 
the  sitting-room,  fell  in  with  Chris's  suggestion  that 
they  play  at  capping  poetry, — a  pastime  which  she 
hated,  but  of  which  Bobby  was  inordinately  fond.  Then 
Lou  proposed  a  game  of  checkers,  which  generally 
ended  abruptly  in  a  war  of  words,  for  Bobby  was  given 
to  holding  long  legal  dissertations  at  every  debatable 
point,  and  Lou  always  insisted  on  her  right  to  take 
back  any  move  that  afterthought  showed  to  be  unadvis- 
able.  But  on  this  occasion  she  yielded  meekly  to  every 
"  No  fair  "  from  her  opponent,  and  even  allowed  herself 
to  be  ignominiously  beaten.  Betty  neither  cried  nor 
giggled,  her  only  misdemeanor  being  to  fasten  round, 
immovable  eyes  upon  her  brother,  in  the  pleasing  hope 
of  surprising  him  in  tears. 

Then  Bobby  and  Nan  declaimed  in  unison  several 
poems.  Both  performers  despised  sentiment,  and  always 
selected  for  these  elocutionary  duets  the  most  stirring 
battle-pieces,  rendered  at  the  top  of  their  lungs.  The 
entire  family  joined  in  "Ivry"  with  a  solemn  pause 
after  the  line, — 

"  '  And  if  my  standard  bearer  fall  — '  " 

Thomas  Dudley,  gentleman  and  soldier  of  fortune, 
had  fought  under  Henry  of  Navarre;  and  it  was  one 
of  the  young  Dudleys'  most  treasured  shibboleths  that 
their  ancestor  was  the  very  standard  bearer  alluded  to 
in  the  poem. 


36       THE  CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL 

"  Now  let 's  sing  '  Captain  John,' "  said  Lou,  and  stood 
aghast. 

Silence  followed,  till  Bobby  gallantly  flung  himself 
into  the  breach;  the  others,  one  by  one,  joined  in. 
But  when  the  chorus  was  reached, — 

"  Vive  le  John,  Vive  le  John, 
Vive  le  Captain  John  1 " 

even  boyish  endurance  faltered. 

"I'm  going  to  bed.  Good-night,"  said  Bobby,  and 
bolted. 

He  dropped  into  the  chair  that  had  been  Daniel 
Webster's,  where  he  did  all  his  work  and  thinking,  and 
whence  were  issued  those  challenges  that  had  brought  a 
long  series  of  glorious  victories  to  the  gallant  Holbrook 
Eleven. 

Vaguely  it  seemed  to  the  boy  as  though  a  challenge 
against  overwhelming  odds  had  reached  him  from  some 
distant,  unknown  field,  which  must  be  played  backed  by 
no  gallant  team,  and  stimulated  by  no  plaudits  from  a 
ring  of  enthusiastic  spectators. 

He  read  the  unfinished  letter  on  the  desk  again  and 
once  again :  — 

DEAB  DICK,  —  I  have  been  thinking  for  some  time  that 
I  should  like  to  come  out  to  the  ranch.  I  have  not  said 
anything  about  it  yet  to  the  girls,  beyond  dropping  a  hint 
now  and  then,  that  the  wild  and  woolly  West  afforded  a 
better  scope  for  my  talents  than  these  scenes  of  an  effete 
civilization.  But  they  do  not  take  kindly  to  the  idea  of 


THE   CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL  37 

being  left  without  a  masculine  protector.  You  need  not 
trouble  yourself  to  answer  this  letter,  as  there  would  be  no 
time.  I  intend  to  start  —  " 

Slowly,  very  slowly,  Bobby  tore  the  letter  to  frag 
ments,  that,  one  by  one,  he  dropped  into  the  waste- 
paper  basket. 

"  It  would  n't  be  the  square  thing  1 "  he  thought. 
"The  girls  have  behaved  like  bricks.  I  can  tell  old 
Shattuck  and  the  fellows  that  Dick  is  coming  home, 
so  they  need  n't  think  I  've  backed  down.  I  must 
face  it  out  —  somehow — and  not  blow  on  Jack  I" 


38  THE   CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL 


CHAPTER  FOUR 

"  TT  THAT  in  the  world  is  Betty  doing?"  demanded 
V  V  Nan,  fretfully.  "  She  has  been  up  and  down 
stairs  a  dozen  times  in  the  last  ten  minutes ! "  A  tre 
mendous  thump  at  every  step  announced  some  burden 
in  Betty's  arms  in  her  last  ascent,  and  a  prolonged  giggle 
apparently  greeted  some  one  above. 

"Playing  with  Evangeline  and  Maud  Courtenay," 
answered  Lou,  who  was  hurrying  to  keep  an  engagement 
with  Susie  Grossman.  Chris  was  in  town  on  one  of 
those  afternoons  of  aimless  wandering  in  which  her 
discontent  sought  solace,  and  to  which  she  was  wont 
to  refer  as  necessitated  by  "innumerable  errands,"  with 
the  preoccupied  air  of  one  whose  tune  is  amply  en 
grossed  by  social  duties.  Nan  presently  left  the  house 
to  sketch  a  certain  favorite  group  of  willows  by  the 
river,  and  the  children  had  full  sway  at  home. 

Since  Colonel  Jerome's  approaching  visit  had  become 
the  chief  subject  of  family  discussion,  Betty  had  been 
the  self-appointed  chairman  of  a  committee  of  ways  and 
means  for  the  proper  entertainment  of  the  expected 
guest.  Her  first  project  was  to  supply  the  requisite 
funds  by  writing  a  book.  The  title  of  the  projected 
volume  was  "The  Young  Housekeepers,  or  Life  in 
America." 


THE   CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL  39 

"  Nice  comprehensive  title  1 "  commented  Bobby. 
"  Why  don't  you  call  it '  Girls,  or  Life  in  the  World? ' " 

The  first  chapter  of  this  work,  of  indeterminate  length, 
was  read  to  Chris,  who  responded  with  a  warmth  suffi 
cient  to  have  satisfied  the  requirements  of  any  but  a 
budding  author. 

"I  don't  want  you  to  say  it's  'very  good,'  or  'very 
prettily  written,' "  sobbed  Betty ;  "  I  want  you  to  say, 
*  It 's  perfectly  splendid  I ' ' 

Literary  aspirations  thus  nipped  in  the  bud,  the  next 
scheme  was  to  paint  a  picture,  of  heroic  size,  of  which 
a  public  exhibition  was  to  be  given.  The  subject  was 
"The  Day  of  Judgment;"  the  imagery  of  the  "Book 
of  Revelation,"  as  interpreted  by  the  artist's  imagina 
tion,  supplying  the  data.  The  Flood  was  also  repre 
sented,  while,  with  magnificent  disregard  of  anachronism, 
a  whale,  with  Jonah's  legs  disappearing  into  his  interior, 
disported  in  a  lurid  expanse  of  vermilion  and  scarlet 
lake.  Water  naturally  suggested  a  bridge,  and  as  that 
which  spanned  the  Holbrook  River  was  the  only  one 
with  which  the  artist  was  familiar,  an  electric  car  was 
added  to  the  composition.  Unfortunately  for  the  world 
of  art,  Nan  discovered  the  larceny  of  her  best  brushes 
and  most  expensive  paints,  and  Betty  was  left  wailing 
over  her  unfinished  masterpiece. 

The  crushed  author  and  artist  descended  to  trade. 
Molasses  candy  seemed  to  offer  an  easy  and  agreeable 
road  to  the  wealth  that  was  denied  loftier  aims.  Betty 
and  her  chosen  friend,  Evangeline  Bean,  went  into 


40       THE  CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL 

partnership,  forgetting  to  turn  off  the  spigot  of  the 
molasses  keg,  to  the  unbounded  disgust  of  Bobby,  who 
on  his  next  visit  to  the  furnace  found  himself  ankle- 
deep  in  a  sticky  morass.  The  two  children  set  up  shop 
with  a  toy  dining-table  and  two  big  rocking-chairs,  near 
a  convenient  gap  in  the  hedge;  without  was  displayed 
the  placard,  —  "Merlassess  Candy  for  Sail.  Price  One 
Cent." 

It  was  in  the  contract  that  if  either  partner  wished 
to  regale  herself  from  the  stock,  she  should  pay  a  penny 
to  the  other  member  of  the  firm.  Neither  Betty  nor 
Evangeline  could  understand,  when  the  financial  basis 
of  operations  was  thus  sound,  why  at  the  end  of  an  hour 
the  candy  had  disappeared,  and  the  entire  assets  of  the 
firm  should  consist  of  the  original  penny  in  Betty's 
pocket. 

Evangeline  —  or,  as  her  mother  had  preferred  to 
christen  her,  Evangeline  Bean  —  was  a  preternaturally 
tall,  thin  girl  with  a  shrill  high-pitched  voice,  and  not 
over-clean  wrists  projecting  from  sleeves  fringed  with 
soiled  and  tawdry  lace.  When  she  made  her  appearance 
at  school,  there  was  a  general  disposition  to  avoid  her. 
It  was  not  so  much  the  fact  that  her  mother  was  a 
washerwoman  that  told  against  her  in  the  estimation  of 
the  Holbrook  children — little  aristocrats,  in  unconscious 
imitation  of  their  elders,  though  they  undoubtedly  were 
—  as  her  unabashed  swagger  in  the  face  of  the  general 
disfavor,  her  open  disregard  of  rules,  —  it  was  considered 
ill-bred  in  the  "Dudley  Primary"  to  disobey  one's 


THE   CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL  41 

teacher,  —  and  a  disagreeable  trick  of  giving  a  "last 
tag  "  to  any  one  in  her  vicinity,  with  a  violence  that  sent 
the  victim  of  her  sport  reeling. 

But  Betty  Dudley,  whom  every  one  liked,  and  who 
lived  in  the  oldest  house  hi  town,  stood  stoutly  up  for 
the  plebeian  new-comer.  She  insisted  that  Evangeline 
should  be  included  in  the  games  at  recess;  and  if  the 
other  little  girls  did  not  greet  her  politely  when  they 
met,  then  "  They  need  n't  say  '  Hullo  I '  to  me,  either," 
declared  Betty.  This  valiant  championship  had  its 
effect,  so  that  the  present  haughty  fling  of  Evangeline's 
skirts — that  always  made  one  side  of  her  frock  appear 
shorter  than  the  other  —  testified  to  a  social  status  equal, 
nay,  superior  to  any  in  Holbrook.  Particularly  in  her 
relations  with  Betty,  did  Evangeline  feel  that  the  main 
tenance  of  a  proper  dignity  demanded  the  unfailing  asser 
tion  of  opinions  diametrically  opposed  to  any  expressed 
by  her  friend. 

Maud  Courtenay,  on  the  contrary,  yielded  meekly  to 
Betty's  sway,  although  their  natural  predilections  were 
at  variance.  Maud  delighted  in  playing  "keep  house," 
and  in  providing  wardrobes,  all  in  the  latest  fashion, 
for  a  large  and  interesting  family  of  children.  Betty 
had  but  one  child,  a  rag  baby  whose  lease  of  life  was 
nothing  short  of  miraculous,  considering  the  hair-breadth 
escapes  from  Indians  and  shipwrecks,  sharks  and  wolves, 
in  which,  with  her  dauntless  mamma,  she  had  borne  a 
part.  She  had  been  flung  as  a  sacrifice  to  heathen 
crocodiles;  she  had  felt  the  wheels  of  Juggernaut — 


42       THE  CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL 

represented  by  a  wheelbarrow  —  pass  over  her  tender 
body,  and  had  many  times  given  up  her  life  upon  the 
scaffold;  Bobby's  mechanical  ingenuity  of  late  having 
taken  a  sanguinary  form,  and  Milly  was  a  wilh'ng  victim 
—  at  least,  so  far  as  her  mamma  was  concerned  —  for 
gallows  or  guillotine.  If,  on  a  rainy  afternoon  Betty 
was  beguiled  into  making  a  sorely  needed  garment  for 
this  worse  than  orphaned  child,  the  task  was  accom 
plished  by  snipping  a  hole  in  a  rag,  slipping  Milly's 
head  through,  and  girdling  her  with  a  bit  of  twine. 

Philly  Carr  —  a  fair-haired,  dimpled  little  fellow,  whose 
mission  in  life  seemed  to  be  that  of  being  petted  and 
"  cuddled  "  —  completed  the  dramatic  company  that 
Betty's  tireless  endeavor  had  now  organized.  Although 
too  young  for  a  speaking  part,  Philly  was  an  invaluable 
member  of  the  troupe,  as  he  could  be  utilized  as  baby 
or  Puck,  cherub,  pappoose,  or  newsboy,  as  the  exigencies 
of  the  drama  required.  While  the  managerial  staff, 
consisting  of  Betty  and  Evangeline,  consulted  regarding 
the  preliminary  arrangements,  Philly  pounded  the  floor 
with  a  pair  of  Indian  clubs  surreptitiously  obtained 
from  Bobby's  room,  and  Maud  tried  the  effect  of  the 
various  wardrobe  properties  upon  her  pretty  face  and 
dainty  figure,  casting  backward  glances  of  intense  satis 
faction  as  she  promenaded  the  room  in  Chris's  best  black 
silk  gown.  A  new  idea  presently  seizing  Philly,  he 
seated  himself  upon  the  trailing  breadths,  on  which 
improvised  sledge  Maud  dragged  him  up  and  down 
the  room,  to  the  speedy  detriment  of  seams  and  gathers. 


THE   CAPTAIN  OF  THE   SCHOOL  43 

"Those  of  the  audience  who  want  a  chair  must  pay 
two  cents,  while  one  cent  should  be  the  price  for  seats  on 
the  floor,"  stated  Betty. 

"They'll  all  sit  on  the  floor,"  retorted  Evangeline. 
"  The  floor  is  about  as  good  as  a  chair,  when  the  chair 
has  n't  any  legs  or  arms  or  back,  and  not  much  of  any 
seat,"  — a  proposition  which,  however  incontrovertible  in 
the  abstract,  plainly  called  for  contradiction  in  the  special 
instance. 

"  I  thank  you,  if  you  please,  Miss  Bean ;  but  we  have 
plenty  of  chairs  that  have  just  as  many  legs  as  you 
have,"  answered  Betty,  who,  too  generous  to  retort  un 
handsomely,  sought  by  superior  elegance  of  language 
and  manners  to  show  Evangeline  delicately,  but  un 
mistakably,  the  difference  in  their  social  status;  but, 
unhappily,  Betty's  elegance  frequently  got  in  the  way 
of  coherency.  "  Besides,"  she  added,  "  we  prefer  to  put 
our  old  chairs  in  the  attic,  instead  of  in  the  drawing- 
room  for  best,  if  you  please,  for  company  to  come 
down  ker-splash  on  the  floor,"  —  an  allusion  to  a  recent 
catastrophe  in  the  Bean  drawing-room,  which  was  also 
dining-room  and  kitchen,  that  momentarily  silenced 
Evangeline.  Betty  was  not  slow  to  perceive  and  follow 
up  so  unusual  an  advantage. 

"  I  suppose  you  never  heard  of  Colonel  Jerome,  Evan 
geline  ?  "  she  inquired  with  pitying  condescension. 

"  Who  might  he  be  ? "  queried  the  guest,  recovering 
her  poise. 

"  He  is  a  friend  of  my  brother's,  who  is  coming  all  the 


44       THE  CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL 

way  from  Montana  to  visit  us,"  explained  Betty.  "  He 
is  the  nephew  of  his  uncle  and  owns  the  interior  of  the 
earth." 

"  Is  it  there  he  lives  ? "  queried  Evangeline,  with 
finely  assumed  interest. 

"  I  guess  if  you  knew  all  the  gold  and  diamonds  there 
are  inside  of  us,  you  'd  wish  you  knew  him  I "  Betty's 
imagination,  fanned  by  Bobby's  happy  flight  of  fancy, 
took  fire  from  her  own  words,  and  she  continued :  "  All 
Colonel  Jerome  has  to  do  when  he  wants  money  is  to 
take  his  knife  and  scrape  away  the  earth  and  dig  up 
heaps  of  gold  dollars.  Perhaps  you'll  see  him  when 
he  comes  down  the  street,"  she  kindly  held  out  the 
hope. 

"  How  will  I  know  him  from  any  other  man  ? " 
questioned  Evangeline,  with  a  manifest  sarcasm  that 
goaded  Betty  to  higher  flights  of  fancy. 

"  He  is  ten  feet  tall,  and  wears  a  buffalo  robe  over 
his  shoulders,  and  carries  a  tomahawk  and  a  big  club," 
she  described.  As  she  spoke,  she  could  actually  see 
her  brother's  friend,  in  his  classic-Indian  attire,  strid 
ing  beneath  the  elms  of  quiet  Holbrook.  "  He  has 
epaulets  on  his  shoulders  that  make  him  invisible," 
she  went  on,  "and  a  sword  a  fairy  gave  him.  When 
the  nindians  see  him  coming,  they  run.  But  he  steps 
along  after  them,  soft-gee-whiz,  a  mile  a  minute, 
and  cuts  off  every  one  of  their  heads  and  kills  them 
fatally  dead.  And  then  he  shakes  his  big  club  at  the 
rest  and  laughs  *  Ha  ha  1  " 


THE  CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL      45 

"  I  think  it 's  wrong  to  kill  the  Indians,  when  they 
welcomed  Columbus  so  kindly  to  these  shores,"  said 
Evangeline,  taking  refuge  in  virtue  and  history.  "I 
presume  likely  that  your  brother  has  killed  a  good 
many,  too." 

"  I  thank  you,  if  you  please,  but  if  my  brother  kills  the 
nindians,  my  sister  sends  the  loveliest  bonnets  to  them," 
returned  Betty,  letting  drop  no  corner  of  her  dignity. 

"Hoi  for  mourning?"  queried  Evangeline,  with  a 
show  of  reason. 

"  For  morning  and  for  evening,"  answered  her  friend, 
loftily ;  "  she  trims  them  for  the  oppyrah !  " 

Lou  had  once  lent  her  talent  to  St.  Barnabas'  annual 
consignment  to  the  Indians.  An  uprising  in  the  neigh 
borhood  of  Dick's  ranch,  that  filled  the  home  circle  with 
alarm,  was  ascribed  by  Bobby  to  the  effect  of  this 
millinery. 

The  utility  man,  who  had  been  listening,  open- 
mouthed,  to  the  description  of  the  Dudleys'  desirable 
guest,  rolled  off  his  sledge  with  a  howl  of  terror.  "  I 
want  marmar,"  he  roared,  running  to  the  door  as  fast 
as  his  fat  little  legs  would  carry  him. 

"  Oh,  no,  Philly  dear,  the  giant  sha'n't  get  you  I " 
cried  Betty,  putting  her  arms  around  the  little  fellow. 
"  Besides,  he  's  a  good  giant,  and  he  '11  give  you  a  ride 
on  his  shoulders." 

"  Want  a  wide  now,"  lisped  Philly,  drying  his  tears. 

"  Evangeline  and  I  will  carry  you  round  the  room 
in  an  easy-chair,"  proposed  Betty. 


46       THE  CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL 

By  the  time  the  third  round  was  completed,  Philly 
had  forgotten  his  terror;  his  bearers,  depositing  him 
in  an  old  crib,  fastened  him  in  till  such  time  as  his 
services  should  be  required. 

"  I  shall  be  Lady  Katharine  Douglas,"  began  Maud. 
"  I  choose  this  feather  for  my  hair,"  displaying  a  dirty 
yellow  plume  of  which  not  much  was  left  but  the  quill. 
Lou  could  never  bring  herself  to  part  with  anything 
in  the  way  of  feather  or  flower,  although  the  treasured 
"  millinery-box  "  was  little  more  than  a  euphemism  for 
rag-bag.  "The  lining  of  this  quilt,  with  ink  spots, 
will  look  like  ermine,  and  that  cape  will  make  a  lovely 
train."  Maud  eyed  admiringly  a  mantle  of  bottle-green 
moire  antique  that  might  have  dated  back  to  the  days 
of  the  Puritan  founder  of  the  house  of  Dudley.  "  Tliere 
is  a  picture  of  Lady  Katharine  in  the  library  at  home," 
she  added.  "  Sometimes  sister  Meg  sits  and  looks  at  it 
without  speaking." 

"What  did  she  do?"  questioned  Betty,  who  liked 
to  hear  stories  as  well  as  to  write  them. 

Maud  had  listened  to  the  dauntless  deed  of  brave, 
beautiful  Lady  Katharine  so  many  times  that  she  could 
repeat  the  tale  almost  in  her  sister's  own  words. 

"  King  James  of  Scotland  rode  forth  with  a  great 
company  to  hold  a  feast  at  Perth,"  she  began.  "  When 
he  reached  the  river,  he  was  met  by  an  old  woman,  who 
warned  him  to  go  no  farther ;  *  for,'  said  she,  *  't  is 
known  that  upon  a  November  eve  a  King  of  Scotland 
shall  be  slain.' 


THE   CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL  47 

"  How  'd  she  know  ?  "  queried  Betty,  practically. 

"  Witch,"  suggested  Evangeline,  succinctly. 

"  Sister  Meg  says  there  are  no  such  people  as  witches," 
returned  Maud. 

"  The  Bible  says  so,"  maintained  Evangeline,  taking 
refuge  again  in  virtue.  "  Besides,  there  's  *  Old  Sukey  '  1 " 

"  Old  Sukey  "  was  a  personage  who  lived  under  the 
cellar  stairs  at  school,  lying  in  wait  to  seize  by  the  legs 
and  drag  into  captivity  any  unwary  little  boy  or  girl  who 
ventured  into  the  basement  after  dark.  No  mortal  eye 
had  ever  beheld  this  uncanny  old  woman,  but  her  exist 
ence  was  an  established  fact  in  the  minds  of  all  the  Hoi- 
brook  children,  so  that  Evangeline's  allusion  was  accepted 
as  indisputable  evidence  of  the  existence  of  witches. 

"Don't  you  interrupt  again!"  commanded  Betty;  "it 
isn't  polite!" 

"King  James  laughed  the  old  woman's  words  to 
scorn,"  Maud  resumed.  "He  reached  the  castle  in 
safety ;  as  midnight  drew  near,  the  revelry  waxed  loud 
and  high,  and  none  heard  the  tramp  of  mailed  feet 
in  the  courtyard,  till  all  at  once  arose  the  cry,  swelling 
from  a  murmur  to  the  loud,  fierce  demand, — 

"'The  King,  the  King!' 

"Traitors  were  hot  upon  .the  track  of  King  Jamie! 
Even  at  that  awful  moment  there  were  some  who  did 
not  lose  their  presence  of  mind.  Behind  the  arras  of 
the  banqueting-hall  was  a  panel  that  opened  into  a 
secret  passage  leading  to  the  postern  gate.  The  King 
might  thus  escape  if  only  a  few  minutes  could  be 


48  THE  CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL 

gained.  Some  of  his  friends  rushed  to  secure  the  outer 
door,  but  the  traitors  had  been  before  them,  and  the  bolt 
was  gone. 

"  Then  Katharine  Douglas  ran  to  the  door  and  lifting 
her  arm,  placed  it  as  a  bar.  The  next  moment  blows, 
hot  and  heavy,  rained  without  upon  the  panels,  but  she 
did  not  falter  until  her  arm  was  broken  and  she  fell, 
senseless,  to  the  floor.  Then  the  traitors  rushed  in,  but 
the  King  was  no  longer  there  1  " 

"Didn't  they  get  him?"  questioned  Betty,  breath 
lessly. 

"Yes,  they  did,  after  all,"  answered  Maud.  "They 
set  off  in  pursuit,  and  overtook  him  before  he  had  gone 
very  far." 

"Pohl  then  what  good  did  it  do?  Lady  Katharine 
had  her  pains  for  nothing,"  scoffed  Evangeline. 

"It's  lovely  to  hear  about,  anyway,"  replied  Betty, 
"  and  it  makes  me  wish  I  could  do  something  splendid 
for  somebody,  too  1  But  there  are  n't  any  kings  nowa 
days,  and  all  the  doors  have  locks." 

"  I  'd  rather  have  been  the  witch,"  commented  Evange 
line.  "She  had  more  sense  than  to  give  herself  away 
for  nothing." 

"I  wonder  which  I  'd  be?"  pondered  Maud. 

"It'll  make  a  splendiferous  tableau,  anyway,"  said 
Betty,  returning  to  business.  "  Philly  can  be  the  armed 
traitors  and  drum  outside  the  door." 

"  I  can  drum  Peter  Piper,"  called  out  the  utility  man, 
enchanted  with  his  r81e. 


THE   CAPTAJN  OF  THE  SCHOOL  49 

"But  they  didn't  know  Peter  Piper  in  Scotland," 
objected  Maud. 

"  It 's  my  house,"  returned  the  stage-manager,  firmly. 
"  I  don't  care  whether  they  knew  Peter  Piper  in  Scot 
land  or  not;  if  they  didn't,  they'd  oughter.  When 
people  pay  two  cents  for  a  show,  they  want  their 
money's  worth.  I  'm  going  to  be  the  King.  You  can 
kick  on  the  door,  Evangeline,  but  don't  you  come  in  till 
I  tell  you  to." 

"If  I'm  going  to  do  anything,  I  am  going  to  do 
it  before  folks,"  rebelled  Evangeline.  "You  needn't 
think  you  can  poke  us  all  into  the  entry  and  have  the 
stage  to  yourself,  if  it  is  your  house,  Betty  Dudley!  I 
mean  to  be  an  angel.  I  '11  be  dressed  all  in  white,  with 
wings  covered  with  red,  white,  and  blue.  We'll  put 
Philly  to  bed,  and  I  shall  be  bending  over  him,  singing, 
'Angels  ever  bright  and  fair,'"  warbled  Evangeline,  at 
the  highest  pitch  of  her  thin,  nasal  voice. 

Philly,  overhearing  the  allusion  to  the  one  event  of 
his  little  life  of  which  he  stood  most  in  dread,  succeeded 
in  scrambling  out  of  the  crib  and  made  the  best  of  his 
way  home. 

Maud,  tired  of  "  dressing  up,"  soon  after  slipped  from 
the  room,  and  Betty  and  Evangeline,  finding  themselves 
deserted  by  the  rest  of  the  troupe,  decided  that  the 
rehearsal  should  be  considered  at  an  end. 

"Do  you  have  ice-cream  at  your  house?"  queried 
Evangeline. 

"What  do  you  s'posel"  answered  Betty,  scornfully. 


50  THE   CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL 

"We  have  it  'most  every  day  for  dinner  and  supper. 
We  have  chocolate  and  vanilla  and  strawberry;  and 
sometimes  we  freeze  bananas  and  cherries  in  it.  Oo, 
oo ! "  and  she  pursed  her  rosy  little  mouth  into  an 
expression  of  ineffable  rapture. 

"  Let 's  make  some  now,"  suggested  her  friend. 

"  We  have  it  so  much  I  'm  sick  of  it,"  returned  Betty. 
"  I  '11  read  you  the  '  Young  Housekeepers,'  instead." 

"I  guess  you  needn't,"  answered  Evangeline,  hastily. 
"  I  think  I  '11  be  going  home  now,  since  you  don't  dass 
make  ice-cream.  Last  tag ! "  She  held  up  two  crossed 
fingers  in  token  that  a  return  "tag  "  would  be  innocuous. 

Betty's  thirst  for  society  rendered  the  threat  of  "go 
ing  home  "  an  always  potent  one,  while  anything  in  the 
nature  of  a  "  dare "  would  have  been  at  any  tune  suffi 
cient  motive  for  her  to  risk  her  neck. 

"Oh,  well,  Evangeline,"  said  she,  loftily,  "if  you 
would  like  some  ice-cream,  I  don't  know  but  what 
we  '11  make  it.  We  '11  take  the  freezer  into  the  dining- 
room,  because  it's  pleasanter  than  the  kitchen  —  al 
though  I'm  sure  your  kitchen  is  a  beautiful  room." 
added  Betty,  hastily.  "Your  stove  is  always  so  nice 
and  shiny,  and  the  clothes-horse  is  so  kind  of  sociable. 
It  looks  just  like  a  screen." 

After  prolonged  effort,  the  two  children  succeeded  in 
fitting  together  the  several  parts  of  the  freezer.  The  ice 
was  then  put  into  napkins  and  well  pounded  with  the 
pastry-pin. 

"  You  must  beat  the  eggs  one  at  a  time,"  announced 


THE   CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL  51 

Bet'ty,  with  a  confused  recollection  of  seeing  Nan  at 
work. 

Evangeline  followed  these  directions  with  so  much 
vigor  that  the  cup  into  which  the  egg  was  dropped  was 
speedily  shattered. 

"  Our  only  whole  cup !  "  wailed  Betty,  momentarily 
forgetful  of  the  family  magnificence.  "Put  them  in 
whole ;  eggs  are  eggs,"  she  added  philosophically.  "  I 
didn't  tell  you  to  put  in  the  shells,  too,  Evangeline 
Bean." 

"  It  slipped  out  of  my  fingers,"  explained  Evangeline, 
fishing  unsuccessfully  for  the  fragments.  "  Maybe  you  'd 
like  to  do  some  of  the  work  yourself,"  she  suggested,  as 
Betty,  kneeling  in  a  chair,  with  her  elbows  on  the  table, 
continued  to  give  forth  her  mandates.  "Sugar  and 
plenty  of  it.  You  must  keep  turning  all  the  tune,  or  it 
will  stick.  Let  me  taste." 

After  the  mixture  had  been  tasted  to  the  extent 
of  several  liberal  spoonfuls,  Betty  decreed  that  there 
should  be  more  sugar.  Evangeline  thought  the  con 
trary.  In  the  ensuing  altercation  over  the  sugar-bowl, 
each  child  tugging  in  a  contrary  direction,  the  pretty 
Wedgwood  bowl  parted.  Evangeline  fell  over  back 
ward,  with  a  wild  clutch  at  the  table-cloth,  that  brought 
plates  and  glasses  with  her  to  the  floor ;  and  Betty,  in  an 
effectual  effort  to  keep  her  balance,  plunged  both  knees 
through  the  seat  of  her  chair.  These  mishaps  put  an 
end  to  any  further  experiments  in  ice-cream  making,  par 
ticularly  when  another  peep  into  the  can  revealed  the 


52  THE  CAPTAIN-  OF  THE  SCHOOL 

fact  that  the  specky,  blotchy  mixture  was  still  liquid, 
the  necessity  of  adding  salt  to  the  ice  being  unknown  to 
either  operator. 

"  A  watched  pot  won't  boil ;  maybe  a  watched  freezer 
won't  friz,"  suggested  Betty.  "Let's  leave  it  and  go 
play  'I  spy.' 

Meanwhile  a  stream  of  dirty  water,  impregnated  with 
rust,  continued  to  pour  from  the  neglected  bung-hole, 
hopelessly  staining  tablecloth  and  carpet.  The  rest  of 
the  family  were  assembled  at  the  tea-table  when  Betty 
appeared,  her  rosy  little  face  rising  like  a  flower  from  its 
calyx,  from  out  the  Puritan  collar  that  in  moments  of 
its  wearer's  excitement  always  inverted  itself.  A  chorus 
arose  like  unto  that  which  greeted  "  Little  Golden  Locks  " 
in  the  house  of  the  "  Three  Bears." 

"  Who  spoilt  our  only  table-cloth  and  reduced  our  last 
napkins  to  rags  ?  "  demanded  Chris. 

"  Who  ruined  the  one  good  breadth  of  carpet  on  which 
Colonel  Jerome  was  to  fix  his  gaze  ?  "  queried  Nan. 

"  Who  smashed  the  last  cup  and  broke  the  seat  of  the 
only  whole  chair  ?  "  questioned  Lou. 

The  glow  left  "Little  Golden  Locks'"  face  as  she 
looked  beseechingly  from  one  to  another  of  her  sisters ; 
her  eyes  began  to  fill. 

"But  it  is  not  of  the  slightest  consequence,"  assev 
erated  Bobby,  politely.  "  It  was  merely  an  idle  impulse 
that  led  us  to  inquire.  Life  in  the  wigwam  has,  doubt 
less,  led  Colonel  Jerome  to  despise  table-cloths  and  nap 
kins,  as  evidences  of  an  effete  civilization.  He  will 


THE   CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL  53 

prefer  a  tin  dipper  to  a  cup ;  the  thought  that  we  have 
no  whole  chair  to  offer  him  need  not  weigh  upon  our 
souls.  Colonel  Jerome  never  sits  down;  he  belongs  to 
the  standing  army." 

"Wha-at?" 

"  Betty,  be  silent  1 "  said  Bobby,  warningly.  "  To  have 
a  joke  explained  is  a  blot  that  has  never  been  upon  our 
'scutcheon." 


54       THE  CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL 


CHAPTER  FIVE 

MRS.  COURTENAY  called  this  afternoon  and 
invited  us,  Nan  and  me,  to  a  party  to-mor 
row  evening,"  announced  Chris,  at  the  supper-table. 
"  It  is  just  an  impromptu  little  affair  for  Miss  Herbert," 
she  added,  in  the  off-hand  manner  of  one  to  whom 
"little  affairs,"  formal  or  informal,  were  every-day 
matters. 

"Dear  me,  I  must  make  a  note  in  my  engagement 
book,"  observed  Nan,  caustically. 

" Didn't  she  ask  Lou  and  me,  too ? "  demanded  Betty. 
"  I  don't  care,  I  call  it  mean  1 "  she  went  on  wrathfully, 
as  Chris  responded  sharply  in  the  negative.  "  The  longer 
I  grow  older,  the  more  I  don't  go  out  so  much  I  " 

"  Betty,"  said  Bobby,  in  a  tone  of  gentle  remonstrance, 
"  an  eminent  authority  has  stated  that '  the  Greek  became 
little  and  hungry  and  every  man's  errand-boy,  all  from 
his  spirit  of  competition  and  love  of  talk.' " 

"  My  precious  Robin  1 "  ejaculated  Lou,  who  if  her 
little  brother  had  voiced  sentiments  of  burglary,  assault 
and  battery,  and  incendiarism,  would  have  still  beamed 
fond  approval. 

"  Mrs.  Courtenay  is  a  fat,  waddlesome  old  lady,"  pro 
nounced  Betty.  "  Every  tune  she  sees  me  she  asks  how 


THE   CAPTAIN  OF  THE   SCHOOL  55 

old  I  am,  and  if  I  like  to  slide  on  the  cellar  door.  I 
should  think  she  'd  know  by  this  time  that  I  don't  grow 
a  year  a  day,  and  I  never  slid  on  a  cellar  door  in  my 
life  1 "  After  this  ebullition  of  feeling  Betty  subsided 
into  unwonted  silence,  listening  eagerly  the  while  to  the 
discussion  between  her  elders  that  followed. 

"  Mrs.  Courtenay  said  that  we  were  to  be  sure  to  come 
early,"  said  Chris.  "  I  consider  nine  o'clock  quite  early 
enough  for  any  evening  function,"  she  added  loftily. 

"What  shall  you  wear?"  questioned  Lou,  with 
interest. 

"  Betty  spoilt  my  black  silk  gown  just  as  I  had  re 
modelled  it,"  sighed  Chris,  her  bright  anticipations 
momentarily  clouded.  "  One  always  feels  prepared  to 
go  anywhere  with  a  black  silk  dress  in  her  wardrobe. 
But  no  matter,"  she  went  on,  in  her  usual  happy  way  of 
making  the  best  of  things ;  "  they  are  wearing  so  many 
combinations  and  colors  this  winter  that  I  can  easily  get 
up  something  pretty  and  picturesque  between  now  and 
to-morrow  night.  You  '11  go,  won't  you,  Nan  ? "  she 
added  anxiously.  "  I  'm  ashamed  always  to  carry  your 
regrets." 

"You  haven't  had  to  carry  them  but  once,  because 
we  've  never  been  asked  anywhere  before  except  to  Mrs. 
Carr's  to  tea,"  answered  Nan,  who  was  sadly  given  to 
pricking  the  little  bubbles  of  her  sister's  social  aspira 
tions.  "And  you  didn't  want  to  go  there  yourself, 
either,  because  you  said  Mr.  Carr  always  conversed  with 
you  about  St.  Paul." 


56  THE   CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL 

" '  There  is  a  worthy  kind  of  man,  with  cobwebs  in  his  head, 
Who  lives  in  sweet  communion  with  the  ages  that  are  dead,'  " 

assented  Chris,  merrily. 

"  Besides,  I  've  nothing  to  wear  but  year  before  last's 
gown,"  continued  Nan.  "  But  I  '11  help  you,"  she  added, 
with  a  generosity  whose  root  may  have  been  the  percep 
tion  that  so  handsome  an  offer  would  be  a  short  and 
easy  way  out  of  any  fancied  necessity  of  going  to  the 
party  herself.  Chris  gratefully  accepted  the  proffered 
assistance,  and  began  planning  how  to  evolve  something 
out  of  nothing. 

Faithful  to  her  promise,  early  the  following  morning, 
Nan  entered  her  sister's  room,  to  find  Chris  busily 
engaged  in  snipping  at  an  old  white  corduroy  coat  of 
Betty's  infancy,  somewhat  to  the  indignation  of  its 
whilom  owner,  who  had  claimed  it  for  the  rag-bag. 
Lou  was  lovingly  turning  over  the  contents  of  the 
millinery  box,  and  Betty,  having  successfully  begged 
for  a  holiday,  sat  on  the  edge  of  the  bed,  a  deeply  inter 
ested  spectator  of  the  gala  preparations. 

"  I  'm  making  it  like  that,"  explained  Chris,  nodding  to 
a  fashion  book,  open  at  a  plate  of  an  elaborate  "  picture  " 
gown  supposed  to  represent  the  costume  of  a  court 
lady  of  the  time  of  Sir  Peter  Lely.  "  Bobby's  old  green 
velveteen  knickerbockers  will  make  the  vest,  and  the 
Marguerite  pocket  will  hide  the  worn  place  on  the  front 
breadth  of  the  skirt,  the  old  figured  taffeta  that 's  been 
hanging  in  the  attic  for  the  last  fifty  years,  you  know," 
she  concluded  triumphantly. 


THE  CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL  57 

"Shall  you  wear  pockets  on  your  elbows,  too?"  in 
quired  Nan,  with  an  air  of  polite  interest. 

"  If  you  've  come  to  make  fun,  you  'd  better  go  back 
to  your  paints  and  mud-pies  I  "  retorted  Chris,  sharply. 

"  I  've  come  to  help,"  answered  her  sister,  meekly, 
chafing  her  nose  with  her  thimble  by  way  of  penance. 
"  But  just  from  weak-minded  curiosity,  would  you  allow 
me  to  ask  what  you  are  going  to  do  about  sleeves,  or 
did  n't  Sir  Peter  like  sleeves  ?  "  For  it  was  the  weak 
point  in  Chris's  dressmaking  that  sleeves  either  failed 
to  enter  into  her  calculations  at  all,  or  by  periodical 
fits  of  temporary  insanity  were  cut  both  for  one  arm. 
For  a  moment  she  looked  nonplussed.  Then  came 
inspiration. 

"  Betty,  fetch  me  Great-Auntie's  cape ! "  she  cried. 
Betty,  delighted  to  be  of  service,  clattered  up  over  the 
stairs  and  down  again,  bringing  the  bottle-green  moire 
in  which  Lady  Katharine  might  have  defied  the  armed 
traitors.  "  It 's  a  direct  Providence,"  cried  Chris,  joy 
ously,  for  the  mantle  proved  a  perfect  match  for  the 
velveteen,  and  spreading  out  its  voluminous  folds,  she 
added  triumphantly,  "  There 's  plenty  of  material  for 
those  three  big  puffs,"  nodding  to  the  banded  balloon 
sleeves  of  the  picture. 

Even  Nan  was  forced  to  an  admiring  admission  of  her 
sister's  cleverness. 

"  Only,  somehow,"  she  added  dubiously,  "  things  look 
so  different  on  paper  from  what  they  do  made  up. 
Your  simple  gowns  are  always  a  success,  at  least  you 


58  THE  CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL 

look  like  a  lady  in  them,  even  if  they  are  threadbare; 
but  it  requires  a  professional  hand  to  fashion  a  gown 
like  that  and  not  have  it  rag-tag.  Home  society  and 
home  sympathy,  although  sometimes  a  little  too  pressing, 
may  be  very  sweet;  but  when  it  comes  to  home  dress 
making  and  home  millinery,  my  vote  is  for  Foreign 
Manufacture  and  Free  Trade." 

But  having  thus  freed  her  mind,  she  fell  to  work  with 
such  hearty  good-will  as  to  assure  efficient  aid.  The 
slow-moving  needle  ill-suited  Nan's  impatient  fingers ; 
at  the  sewing-machine,  however,  she  was  in  her  element. 
It  was  as  though  a  whirlwind  had  taken  possession, 
when,  with  a  vigorous  turn  of  the  wheel,  and  volts 
of  energy  directed  to  the  treadle,  she  set  off  on  a  breath 
less  race,  unheedful  of  basting  threads  stitched  in  by  the 
way,  and  sublimely  disregardful  of  the  necessity  of 
fastening  ends  on  a  single-thread  machine.  But  steadily 
as  the  two  girls  worked,  it  was  not  till  after  a  hasty  tea 
that  the  final  stitch  was  taken,  the  last  furbelow  arranged, 
and  Chris  viewed  herself  complacently  in  the  mirror  by 
the  somewhat  uncertain  light  of  the  only  lamp  that 
happened  to  be  filled,  the  student  lamp  having  subsided 
into  its  phase  of  eclipse.  In  this  twilight  the  image 
was  one  to  give  satisfaction.  A  soft  little  yellow 
feather  in  her  hair  harmonized  admirably  with  the  bunch 
of  chrysanthemums,  her  own  flowers,  that  she  hugged 
to  her  breast  closer  than  did  ever  the  Spartan  boy  his 
ill-gotten  gains,  for  much  piecing  and  patching  of 
the  velveteen,  that  proved  to  be  sadly  worn  about  the 


THE   CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL  59 

knees,  had  been  necessary  to  insure  the  graceful  folds 
approved  by  Sir  Peter.  Her  fan,  an  elaborate  affair 
of  silk  gauze,  Watteau  painting,  and  ivory  sticks,  a 
birthday  gift  of  long  ago,  would  be  surpassed  by  none 
there,  and  her  gloves,  eked  out  to  a  suitable  Length 
by  the  addition  of  several  "  mousquetaire  "  wrists,  col 
lected  from  the  family,  did  credit  to  her  own  ingenuity 
and  Nan's  vigorous  scrubbing  with  crayon  rubber. 

By  an  unusual  exercise  of  self-restraint,  Nan  refrained 
from  criticism,  Lou's  encomiums  were  soul-warming,  so 
that  Chris  set  off  for  her  first  grown-up  party  filled  with 
the  pleasantest  anticipations  and  the  parting  injunction 
to  Bobby  to  call  for  her  in  due  season. 

As  she  approached  the  opposite  house,  she  noted  with 
momentary  surprise  that  the  drawing-room  was  not 
so  brilliantly  illumined  as  one  would  have  expected 
for  the  occasion.  Miss  Meg  came  swiftly  forward  from 
the  library  with  cordial  greeting.  It  was  not  till  Chris 
had  thrown  aside  her  "  opera  cloak  "  with  airy  noncha 
lance,  saying,  in  her  most  pronounced  "  society  "  manner, 
"  So  good  of  you  to  remember  us  in  this  delightful  way  I  " 
that  a  sudden  wave  of  doubt  swept  over  her.  Miss  Meg's 
attire  was  merely  a  pretty  house-gown,  and  no  buzz  of 
conversation  was  audible  from  library  or  drawing-room. 
The  thought  whirled  through  the  girl's  brain,  "  Could 
she  have  been  mistaken  in  the  evening.  Was  it  later 
than  she  supposed?" 

As  she  beheld  the  elaborate  gown,  some  fineness  of 
intuition,  aided  by  the  sudden  look  of  dismay  on  Chris's 


60  THE   CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL 

face,  may  have  given  Miss  Meg  a  clew  to  the  situation, 
for  she  said  quickly,  — 

"It  was  so  good  of  you  to  come!  I  wanted  Miss 
Herbert  to  meet  our  neighbors ;  there  is  so  little  oppor 
tunity  of  getting  acquainted  in  the  crowd  and  rush  of 
a  tea,  you  know,  that  I  thought  I  would  venture  to 
ask  you  and  your  sister  to  spend  a  quiet  evening  with 
us." 

Chris  was  hardly  conscious  of  her  reply,  for  at  that 
moment  to  the  agonized  realization  of  her  blunder 
was  suddenly  added  the  sight  of  her  own  reflection  in 
the  wide  hall  mirror.  What  a  fantastic  figure  it  was, 
as  ridiculous  as  Betty,  "  dressed  up  "  in  cast-off  finery  I 
Yet  even  at  that  awful  moment  the  girl's  self-possession 
did  not  desert  her,  and  giving  smiling  assent  to  Miss 
Meg's  query,  "Shall  we  join  the  others?"  she  followed 
her  hostess  to  the  library. 

Upon  its  threshold  a  worse  shock  awaited  her,  and  for 
a  moment  she  stood  in  a  sort  of  nightmarish  paralysis. 
On  the  sofa  sat  Betty,  very  erect  and  very  complacent, 
in  the  evident  consciousness  of  suitable  and  becoming 
attire.  What  appeared  to  be  the  fleecy  lining  of  an 
old  quilt,  liberally  splashed  with  ink,  was  draped 
about  her  shoulders.  An  ostrich  feather  of  which  little 
was  left  but  the  quill  was  stuck  into  her  braid  at  the 
nape  of  her  neck,  and  depending  loosely  over  her  head, 
vibrated  with  every  movement.  Her  hands,  encased 
in  an  old  pair  of  Bobby's  white  cotton  drill  gloves, 
from  which  a  twisted  length  of  finger  tips  projected  like 


THE  CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL  61 

a  fakir's  nails,  wafted  to  and  fro  a  huge  feather  fan, 
upon  which  was  depicted  a  bird  of  Paradise  embowered 
in  cabbage  roses. 

"  What  will  they  think  of  us  ?  "  thought  Chris,  miser 
ably,  as,  scarcely  knowing  what  she  said,  she  exchanged 
greetings  with  the  others.  At  the  first  opportunity  she 
made  her  way  to  the  sofa.  Betty's  nonchalant  air  was 
a  study. 

"  Go  home  this  instant  1 "  whispered  Chris,  sternly. 
"What  do  you  mean  by  coming  here  like  this,  you 
naughty  girl?" 

"  I  thought  probably  Mrs.  Courtenay  forgot  to  ask 
me,"  answered  Betty,  in  a  strident  whisper.  "You 
know  she  always  disremembers  how  old  I  am.  Oh,  how 
sweet  you  do  look,  Chrissy  I "  and  Betty  gazed  into  her 
sister's  face  with  a  fervor  of  innocent  admiration.  "  The 
patch  on  your  skirt  doesn't  show  a  bit,  and  nobody 
would  ever  guess  that  your  waist  was  just  nothing  but 
Bobby's  old  knickerbockers,  truly.  My  dress  is  like  a 
picture,  too ; "  and  Betty  nodded  to  a  portrait  over  the 
mantel  to  whose  costume  her  own  array  did,  indeed, 
bear  a  sort  of  burlesque  semblance.  "When  does  the 
party  begin,  Chrissy?" 

Miss  Herbert  became  absorbed  in  her  needlework. 
Grave  Mr.  Courtenay  raised  his  newspaper  to  the  level  of 
his  eyebrows.  Young  Mr.  Courtenay  coughed  slightly, 
and  Miss  Meg  arose,  with  the  evident  intention  of  coming 
to  the  rescue  of  her  hapless  guest.  Chris,  with  a  rapid 
change  of  base,  made  a  last  desperate  appeal. 


62  THE   CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL 

"  Do  go  home,  there 's  a  dear,  and  I  '11  give  you  my 
coral  necklace,"  she  pleaded. 

"  Will  you  truly,  for  my  ownty  donty  ? "  cried  Betty 
rapturously,  at  the  top  of  her  voice.  "  Oh,  yes,  I  '11 
go  home  just  as  soon  as  we  have  had  the  ice-cream 
and  snappers.  Besides,  you  know,  you  told  Bobby  not 
to  come  for  us  till  quarter  of  twelve." 

In  the  excitement  of  the  munificent  offer,  Betty 
jumped  from  the  sofa  and  set  one  foot  firmly  on  the  train 
of  her  sister's  gown.  Chris  turned  hastily,  as  Miss  Meg 
approached.  Crick  went  Nan's  careless  stitching,  and  a 
yard  or  more  of  the  ruffles  that  had  judiciously  eked  out 
the  scanty  breadths  lay  upon  the  floor.  Betty,  left  mis 
tress  of  the  field,  giggled  with  the  peculiar  zest  that  an 
accident  always  exerted  upon  her  risibilities,  and  Miss 
Meg  went  down  on  her  knees  with  condolence  and  phis. 

How  the  remainder  of  that  dreadful  evening  passed, 
Chris  could  not  afterwards  have  told  clearly.  Miss 
Meg's  efforts  at  conversation  fell,  one  after  another, 
to  the  ground.  Miss  Herbert  palpably  tried  to  reduce 
her  remarks  to  the  level  of  the  intelligence  of  this 
shy,  awkward  girl,  who  seemed  incapable  of  responding 
even  to  the  veriest  commonplaces.  What  could  her 
friend  have  meant  by  telling  her  of  those  "  three  bright, 
pretty  girls  and  the  dear,  funny  child  across  the  way  ?  " 

"The  last  resort  for  the  stupid,"  thought  Chris 
bitterly,  as  young  Mr.  Courtenay  produced  some  foreign 
photographs,  and  with  pleasant  comment  tried  to  interest 
the  guest. 


THE  CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL       63 

Meantime  Betty,  on  the  sofa,  was  watching  her  sister's 
every  movement,  copying  with  ludicrous  fidelity  each 
turn  of  Chris's  head  and  wave  of  her  fan,  in  such  perfect 
faith  that  she  could  not  go  astray  with  so  faultless  a 
model,  that  every  moment  Chris  grew  more  miserably 
conscious  that  it  was  only  by  a  supreme  effort  of  good 
breeding  that  her  hosts  were  able  to  suppress  their 
laughter. 

The  appointed  hour  came  and  went;  but  Bobby  did 
not  appear,  and  when  at  midnight  Chris  faltered  that 
she  must  go  home,  she  had  had  a  most  delightful 
evening,  it  was  young  Mr.  Courtenay  who  escorted 
her  and  Betty  across  the  way,  —  Chris  silent  with  morti 
fication,  and  Betty  chattering  in  high  glee  as  she  clasped 
their  companion's  hand.  The  elder  girl's  spirit  had  been 
brought  too  low  for  her  to  utter  a  word  of  reproach, 
and  Betty  went  to  bed  supremely  happy  over  her  good 
time. 

On  Chris's  tardy  appearance  at  the  breakfast-table,  she 
was  greeted  by  a  shower  of  questions  concerning  the 
previous  evening. 

"  It  is  the  strangest  thing  that  I  cannot  go  anywhere 
without  this  entire  family  thinking  they  have  the  right 
to  know  everything  that  was  said,  done,  worn,  and 
eaten,"  she  responded  pettishly. 

"Of  course  we  expect  it,"  answered  Bobby,  blandly. 
"  It  was  part  of  our  charter  of  rights  and  liberties,  drawn 
up  when  we  agreed  to  be  a  family,  to  have  a  free  and 
full  statement  of  all  the  acts,  thoughts,  and  intentions 


64       THE  CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL 

of  every  individual  therein,  to  be  delivered  at  the  table, 
in  common  council  assembled.  This  unprecedented  and 
unwarrantable  silence  on  your  part  conceals  something 
which  it  is  our  duty  to  fathom." 

At  this  moment  Betty  entered  the  room,  still  beaming 
with  the  recollection  of  last  night's  festivity. 

"  Did  n't  we  have  a  be-you-tiful  time,  Chrissy  ?  "  she 
began.  "  Nobody  wore  gloves  but  Chrissy  and  me,"  she 
went  on,  turning  to  her  interested  audience.  "There 
was  nobody  there  but  us.  We  had  the  party  all  to 
ourselves,  didn't  we,  Chrissy?" 

The  direct  appeal  was  more  than  flesh  and  blood 
could  bear. 

"  It  was  very  naughty  of  you  to  go,  Betty,"  answered 
Chris,  sharply,  "and  I  was  greatly  mortified  at  the 
way  you  looked  and  behaved." 

"  And  so  was  I  mortified,  too,  at  the  way  you  looked 
and  behaved,"  retorted  Betty,  wrathfully.  "  You 
dropped  all  to  pieces,  and  Miss  Meg  had  to  pin  you 
together,  and  you  stayed  so  long  that  Mrs.  Courtenay 
fell  asleep  in  her  chair  and  snored;  and  I  don't  care," 
wailed  Betty;  "you're  always  telling  me  I  mustn't 
say  '  What  ? '  to  everything,  and  you  said  it  yourself 
four  times  when  Miss  Herbert  asked,  *  Were  n't  we 
having  fine  weather  ?  ' ' 

An  expressive  silence  followed  these  revelations,  suc 
ceeded  by  a  chorus  of  laughter. 

"  I  hope  I  shall  be  as  much  of  a  success  when  I  come 
out,"  suggested  Nan.  "  I  told  you  the  dress  would  be 


THE  CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL       65 

ridiculous.  You  'd  better  keep  to  the  costumes  of  the 
present  century  and  not  rely  on  Sir  Peter  for  the 
fashions." 

"  That  you,  hitherto  regarded  as  the  show  member  of 
our  family,  should  thus  bring  discredit  upon  your  fond 
and  trusting  little  brother  and  sisters  1 "  chimed  in 
Bobby. 

"  There  were  at  least  six  pieces  in  the  wrists  of  those 
gloves.  None  of  them  matched,"  added  Lou,  reflectively. 
"  I  thought  I  would  n't  tell  you,  last  night,  because  it 
might  have  made  you  sort  of  uncomfortable,"  she  added, 
with  sisterly  consideration. 

"  There  never  was  such  a  family !  I  'm  sure  —  it 's 
very  unkind  —  of  you  all,"  said  Chris  brokenly,  push 
ing  her  chair  from  the  table.  "  It  was  a  perfectly  natural 
mistake,"  she  added,  with  a  futile  attempt  at  dignity. 
"  Mrs.  Courtenay  never  gets  anything  straight,  and  how 
was  I  to  know  that  when  she  spoke  of  *  company '  she 
wasn't  referring  to  a  party  at  all,  but  only  to  Miss 
Herbert?" 

For  a  while  Chris  was  exceedingly  vulnerable  to  any 
allusion  to  that  unfortunate  evening;  but  by  degrees 
she  became  less  sensitive  and  even,  at  last,  stonily  indif 
ferent,  when  Bobby  offered  excuse  for  his  tardy  appear 
ance  at  the  breakfast-table  with  the  words,  "  A  ball  last 
night  given  by  some  friends  in  the  '  Beyond '  kept  me 
up  beyond  our  usual  primitive  hour  of  retirement  at 
eight  o'clock."  Or  prefacing  his  entrance  into  the  room 
by  thrusting  his  head  cautiously  through  a  crack  of  the 


66  THE   CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL 

door,  he  would  whisper,  "  Is  there  a  party  here  ?  One  is 
likely  to  stumble  on  a  party,  these  dark  nights,  at  any 
corner ; "  and  slowly  emerging  into  view  in  a  robe 
fashioned  from  a  Navajo  blanket  and  announcing,  "  My 
picture  dress ! "  with  a  flourish  of  an  imaginary  toma 
hawk,  he  would  swoop  upon  Betty,  who  showed  her 
appreciation  of  her  brother's  humor  by  a  torrent  of 
mingled  tears  and  giggles. 

But,  undreamt  of  by  Chris,  a  tune  of  wonderful 
brightness  was  in  store  for  her,  and  it  was  out  of  the 
darkness  of  that  memorable  evening  that  it  was  to 
dawn. 


THE  CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL  67 


CHAPTER  SIX 

"  ^HOULDER  arms.     More  snap.     I  saw  you  wink. 

1<J  Try  that  again.     Don't  breathe ! " 

Lou,  with  Bobby's  "  soldier  "  cap  on  her  pretty  head, 
went  through  the  manual  with  the  glibness  of  a  drill- 
sergeant,  till  "  Parade  Rest "  was  reached,  the  company 
grounded  arms  and  saluted. 

"  Very  good,  Robin.  Colonel  Jerome  himself  could  n't 
do  it  better,"  said  Lou,  approvingly. 

"Officers  don't  carry  guns,"  explained  Bobby,  pa 
tiently.  Not  but  what  Lou,  for  a  girl,  was  fairly  con 
versant  with  military  tactics  and  had  already  proved 
herself  an  efficient  drill-master. 

"  More 's  the  pity,"  she  responded  equably.  "  I  would 
carry  a  gun  if  I  were  a  brigadier-general,  —  one  of  the 
kind  that  shoots  the  enemy  before  he 's  in  sight,  and  no 
fair  shooting  back." 

"Let's  go  into  the  garden,  and  get  some  nuts  for 
the  candy,"  suggested  Bobby. 

Sunday  morning  all  of  the  family  went  decorously  to 
church.  In  the  afternoon  they  followed  the  bent  of 
their  individual  inclinations.  Chris  was  at  the  piano 
warbling,  with  her  head  on  one  side,  the  fragment  of 
a  sentimental  ditty, — 


68  THE   CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL 

"  Meet  me  to-night,  dearest,  down  by  the  gate ; 
Longingly,  anxiously,  for  thee  I  wait  —  " 

Bobby  had  scoffingly  supplied  the  remainder  of  the 
quatrain,  — 

"  Hustle,  because  I  have  stood  here  a  year, 
Longing  and  anxious  for  you  to  appear !  " 

Nan  bent  herself  to  the  recovery  of  articles  "  lost  or 
missing"  during  the  week,  generally  by  reason  of  her 
own  carelessness  or  absent-mindedness,  but  which  she 
darkly  hinted  had  disappeared  by  some  one's  connivance 
or  through  some  mysterious  bogy  agency. 

"  I  would  keep  memoranda  of  the  places  where  I  put 
things,"  she  said  despairingly,  "only  I  should  lose  the 
memoranda  too." 

"  So  you  would,"  assented  Chris,  laughing. 

"You  needn't  be  so  ready  with  your  response,"  re 
torted  Nan,  with  unlooked-for  acerbity.  "  One  may 
make  a  prayer,  but  nobody  wants  the  clerk  to  say 
« Amen  I '  " 

Lou  had  been  conjuring  up  a  faithful  imitation  of 
a  bonnet  seen  during  the  morning  service.  Betty  and 
Evangeline  were  making  molasses  candy. 

The  squirrels  had  already  possessed  themselves  of 
the  nuts,  and  Bobby  and  Lou,  seating  themselves  in 
the  crotch  of  the  Judas  tree,  watched  the  little  crea 
tures  as  they  chased  one  another  along  the  piazza  or 
over  the  lawn,  in  the  happy  immunity  from  harm  that 
had  been  theirs  for  generations. 

"  Lou,  I  have  an  awful  lot  of  worries,"  began  Bobby, 


THE   CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL  69 

and  ran  his  fingers  through  his  hair.  Every  morning 
could  Bobby  say,  with  Brutus,  "This  parting  was 
well  made  !  "  But  at  the  first  mental  perturbation  the 
rebellious  locks  were  reduced  to  the  bang  despised  by 
their  owner  as  "  sissy,"  but  regarded  by  Lou  as  the 
most  irresistible  of  her  little  brother's  attractions. 

"I  hope  it  won't  make  your  hair  fall  out,  Robin 
dear,"  she  returned  tenderly.  "I  couldn't  love  a  bald 
little  brother." 

"  The  fact  is,  Lou,"  Bobby  went  on,  "  I  have  not 
a  penny  hi  the  world,  and  I  am  head  over  ears  hi 
debt,  besides.  I  was  under  so  many  obligations  that 
the  other  day,  when  I  treated,  I  cleaned  out  the  Em 
porium.  But  Griff  can  wait,  and  so  can  Lucy  —  I  owe 
him  a  little  jag,  too.  But  I  'm  in  a  regular  fix  about 
the  Snark.  There  is  no  doubt  but  what  it  has  been 
running  down  hill  for  some  time.  I've  such  a  lot  to 
attend  to,  particularly  now  it 's  football  season,  that  I  've 
had  to  leave  a  good  deal  of  business  to  the  assistant 
editors.  Taffy  Dabney  is  business  editor,  you  know. 
He  can  work  to  beat  the  band  when  he 's  fit,  but  after 
he 's  been  stuffing  with  taffy  and  fudge,  he 's  good  for 
about  as  much  as  a  bag  of  meal.  He  has  a  wheel  in 
his  head,  too,  half  the  tune,  and  then  the  affairs 
of  the  Snark  get  left.  He  doesn't  go  the  rounds 
after  ads.,  he  has  n't  canvassed  the  school  for  new  sub 
scriptions,  or  shown  any  enterprise  in  getting  names 
outside.  His  private  credit,  too,  is  n.  g.,  and  that  has 
reflected  to  a  damaging  extent  on  the  paper.  Last 


70  THE   CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL 

year  he  borrowed  a  little  jag  of  Lucy,  who  always 
has  money  to  burn,  then  struck  Hayti  to  pay  Lucy; 
and  when  Hayti  went  for  him,  got  a  lend  from  Jack, 
till  he'd  gone  through  the  class,  the  size  of  the  loan 
increasing  with  each  fellow  he  struck,  till  his  rotary- 
debt  amounted  to  a  tidy  lot.  He 's  working  up  the 
Juniors  now,  and  I  think  it's  a  beastly  shame!"  con 
cluded  Bobby,  warmly.  "  Taffy 's  smart  —  there 's  no 
doubt  of  that  —  and  we  thought  we  were  doing  a 
good  thing  when  we  made  him  business  editor,  but 
his  methods  are  not  o.  k." 

"Doesn't  Lucy  pull  fair?"  inquired  Lou,  sympa 
thetically.  "He's  exchange  editor,  isn't  he?" 

"  It 's  Lucy  who  's  going  to  be  the  ruination  of  the 
Snark"  groaned  Bobby.  "  He 's  a  smooth  fellow  all 
right,  except  when  girls  are  hi  it,  and  then  there's 
no  reckoning  on  him.  Since  he's  been  friends  with 
Susie  Grossman,  we've  been  brought  to  the  verge  of 
bankruptcy.  The  public  will  not  subscribe  to  a  pe 
riodical  conducted  on  our  present  system." 

The  last  number  of  the  Snark  had  contained  a 
love  story  by  Susie  Grossman — who  wrote  under  the 
nom  de  plume  of  "  Psyche  "  —  that  had  been  dragging 
its  slow  length  along  since  the  journal  had  come 
under  its  present  management.  A  full-page  poem 
entitled  "  Drif ting  or  Sailing  ?  "  moral  enough  to  have 
swamped  all  the  Sunday-school  literature  in  the  land, 
and  several  sonnets  and  "Monodies"  considerately  la 
belled  "  Thoughts,"  also  signed  "  Psyche."  In  addition, 


THE   CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL  Tl 

there  was  an  article  on  the  planet  Mars,  adapted  by  the 
exchange  editor  —  who  dabbled  lightly  in  astronomy — 
from  a  recent  article  in  the  Popular  Science  Monthly. 
Into  the  meagre  space  that  was  left,  was  crowded  the 
news  from  the  ball  field,  a  few  paragraphs  concerning 
the  "Company,"  and  a  lively  column  headed  "Per 
sonal,"  the  last-named  department  bringing  on,  regu 
larly,  a  pitched  battle  between  the  editorial  staff  and 
those  honored  by  the  journalistic  notice. 

"  I  wish  the  fellows  would  send  more  copy,"  Bobby 
continued.  "  It 's  no  use  telling  them  it 's  their  duty  to 
build  up  the  paper,  for  the  credit  of  the  school.  They 
say  the  Snark  isn't  a  credit,  but  a  crying  disgrace; 
that  all  the  other  schools  laugh  at  it,  and  it's  only 
fit  for  a  Sunday-school  kindergarten,  and  they  won't 
subscribe  themselves,  and  are  ashamed  to  ask  their 
relatives  and  friends  to  subscribe.  You  don't  know 
what  an  editor  has  to  contend  with!  Besides,  there 
will  never  be  room  for  live  up-to-date  articles  as  long 
as  Lucy  is  smitten  on  Susie  Grossman.  Look  here ! " 

The  harassed  editor  turned  his  pockets  inside  out,  and 
disentangled  several  sheets  of  fashionable-hued  paper  from 
out  a  mass  of  nutshells,  pieces  of  string,  football  keys, 
apple-cores,  and  "wobs"  of  linen,  that  had  done  duty, 
indifferently,  as  handkerchiefs,  towels,  bicycle  rags,  and 
bandages  for  bruised  fingers. 

"  All  this  stuff  is  from  '  Psyche,'  —  or '  Pishy,'  as  Lucy 
ignorantly  calls  her.  I  don't  know  why  she  should 
have  chosen  such  a  pseudonym,  for  her  appearance  is 


72  THE   CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL 

less  suggestive  of  the  butterfly  than  of  the  grub.  But 
if  she  would  only  be  more  cheerful  in  her  literary  style, 
I  would  overlook  any  extravagance  in  her  conception  of 
the  fitness  of  things.  Here  's  a  *  Requiem.'  It  begins,  — 

'  Now  wherefore  this  sorrow  and  sadness, 

And  wherefore  this  heart-rending  moan  — ' 

"I  wrapped  the  bait  in  some  of  the  copy  the  other 
day,  when  we  went  fishing,  and  Lucy  got  mad  and 
said  our  contributor's  articles  should  be  treated  with 
more  respect.  But  I  think  it  was  the  worms  who  should 
have  kicked.  Here  's  another,  called  *  Desolation,'  — 

*  Oh,  cooing  dove  in  yonder  tree, 

Had  I  your  plumy  wings  of  snow, 
I  'd  spread  them  wide  and  soar  and  flee 

Beyond  the  reach  of  all  below, 
From  care  and  strife  and  sorrow  free.' 

"  I  wish  she  would  soar  and  flee  to — to  Sirius,  and 
that  Lucy  would  soar  with  her,  and  do  his  billing  and 
cooing  hi  another  than  the  solar  system,"  groaned  the 
editor.  "  Lucy  calls  that  a  *  gem.'  He  actually  ex 
pressed  that  opinion  in  the  editorial  column  I  The 
other  fellows  put  it  on  me,  and  the  exchanges  have 
all  been  asking  for  more  'gems.'  Lucy  is  positively 
so  befogged  by  his  love  affairs  that  he  takes  all  the 
chaff  as  a  genuine  tribute  to  *  PishyV  genius,  and  is 
more  puffed  up  in  his  own  conceit  than  ever.  What 
awaits  us  hi  the  near  future  if  this  sort  of  thing  con 
tinues,  no  fellow  can  say.  If  I  beg  Psyche  to  boil 
down  her  productions,  you  'd  think  I  was  referring  to 


THE   CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL  73 

her  grandmother ;  and  if  I  venture  to  cut  out  a  syllable 
from  her  poems,  —  some  of  the  lines  have  as  many  feet 
as  a  centipede,  —  she  won't  dance  with  Lucy  the  next 
recess,  and  then  he  comes  down  on  me  like  a  ton  of 
brick.  If  I  don't  read  every  article  the  instant  it 
is  received,  and  clap  it  into  the  next  issue,  Susie  cries 
and  Lucy  says  I  'm  unfit  for  my  responsible  position. 
When  I  've  been  goaded  to  desperation  and  have  re 
jected  a  manuscript,  he 's  brought  it  back  and  said, '  Susie 
is  awfully  cut  up  about  this.  We  really  must  take  it ! ' 
I  hate  to  say  '  no  '  to  Lucy.  Besides,  I  'm  under  no  end 
of  obligations  to  him.  I  never  have  to  put  my  hand  in 
my  pocket  when  he  is  around.  Lucy  has  always  treated 
me  very  smooth  1  " 

"  Susie  likes  you  better  than  Lucy,"  said  Lou,  not 
as  one  betraying  a  confidence,  but  as  admitting  to  a 
precious  secret.  "  She  asked  me,  the  other  day,  for 
a  lock  of  your  hair.  I  think  that  one  at  present  dang 
ling  into  your  right  eye  would  make  her  happy  for 
life." 

"  Did  you  give  it  to  her  ?  "  demanded  Bobby,  fiercely. 

"  No,  Robin  love,"  answered  his  sister,  soothingly. 
"  You  have  n't  had  your  hair  cut  lately,  you  know," 
she  added.  Something  in  her  tone  suggested  the  pos 
sibility  of  having  acceded  to  so  eminently  natural  a  re 
quest  had  circumstances  permitted,  to  which  Bobby 
responded  rather  than  to  the  actual  words,  with  a  de 
termination  like  unto  that  which  Samson  might  have 
displayed,  had  he  foreseen  the  result  of  Delilah's  wiles. 


74  THE   CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL 

"  I  will  never  have  my  hair  cut  again  1  I  will  wear 
it  until  it  is  long  enough  to  tie  up  with  a  blue  ribbon. 
If  I  ever  know  of  a  single  hair  of  mine  being  in  the 
possession  of  Susie  Grossman,  I  —  I  will  scalp  every 
body  hi  Holbrook,  so  that  her  idiotic  desires  may  not 
be  gratified,"  threatened  Bobby,  feeling  that  the  way 
was  indeed  dark  when  such  pitfalls  lurked  in  the  very 
sanctity  of  home.  "  Why  does  n't  she  transfer  her 
affections  to  Lucy,  who  is  pining  for  them,  and  would 
give  her  his  whole  poll  if  she  wanted  it?" 

"  I  think  Susie  is  lovely,  "  cried  Lou,  loyally  anxious 
to  defend  her  friend,  and  considering  "  Psyche's  "  affec 
tion,  misplaced  though  it  appeared  to  be,  too  natural  for 
reprehension.  "  She  has  written  some  lovely  poetry 
about  you,  too ;  there 's  something  hi  it  about  your 
'wavy  bronze  hair.'  By  and  by  she  is  going  to  pub 
lish  a  collection  of  her  poems,  and  the  one  about  you 
is  to  be  the  first  in  the  book." 

"  Does  it  begin  with  *  Only '  ?  "  questioned  Bobby, 
desperately. 

"  Every  verse,"  answered  Lou,  reassuringly. 

Language  failed  him,  and  Bobby  could  only  groan. 

"The  fellows  in  the  City  High  School,  whom  we 
licked  out  of  sight  in  last  year's  match,"  he  resumed 
presently,  "  have  been  lying  low  ever  since,  to  get  square 
with  us.  They  have  just  got  up  an  idiotic  paper  called 
Cupid's  Own,  'devoted  to  the  h'Arts.'  I  suppose  they 
think  they  're  clever  all  right  I  "  went  on  Bobby,  in  tones 
of  the  deepest  disgust.  "  Everybody  hi  town  has  been 


THE   CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL  75 

asking  me  if  I  've  seen  it.  I  would  issue  a  big  sup 
plement,  clean  out  all  the  stuff  we  have  on  hand  and 
cut  the  concern,  but  I  can't  do  that  as  long  as  we  are 
in  debt  to  the  printer.  Besides,  the  Snark  is  a  school 
affair.  It  wouldn't  be  the  square  thing  to  give  it  up 
at  present,  and  nobody  would  take  the  editorship  while 
matters  are  in  this  condition." 

"  Would  n't  Lucy  help  you  out  ?  "  suggested  Lou. 

"  Lucy  has  been  on  the  staff  only  this  year,"  explained 
her  brother.  "  The  debt  has  been  accumulating  for  two 
or  three  years  —  ever  since  I've  been  editor,  in  fact. 
You  know  I  was  chosen  exchange  editor  hi  the  Junior 
year.  Peterson  —  the  printer  —  has  never  dunned  us ; 
but  he  is  hard  up  himself,  I  suppose,  and  now  that 
Lucy,  whose  dad  has  more  rocks  than  any  one  in  town,  is 
on  the  staff,  he  has  been  pressing  for  payment.  It 
is  really  a  personal  debt,  you  see,  at  least  so  far  as  Lucy 
is  concerned." 

"  I  wish  I  could  lend  you  some  money,  Robin  dear," 
said  Lou,  wistfully.  "  I  have  n't  much,  but  you  'd  be 
welcome  to  it ;  only  you  know  we  all  agreed  to  save  up 
against  Dick's  return." 

"  You  're  a  dear,  Lou,"  responded  Bobby,  warmly ; 
"  but  of  course  that  would  n't  do,  now  that  we  're 
all  making  common  cause,"  —  with  a  magnificence 
that  took  no  heed  of  the  gloomy  state  of  his  own 
finances.  "  Nan  generally  had  some  spare  cash  on  hand, 
and  was  perfectly  ready  to  lend  it.  Girls  have  n't  so 
much  use  for  money  as  fellows.  Of  course,  I  always 


76       THE  CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL 

gave  her  my  '  I.  O.  U.,'  but  in  a  day  or  two  I  would 
find  it  under  my  plate  at  breakfast.  But  now  she  wants 
every  red,  too.  The  hens  have  n't  been  laying  lately, 
either.  They  always  do  go  on  a  strike  when  they  know 
I  'm  hard  up,  —  the  beasts  1 " 

Bobby's  hens  were  a  Plymouth  Rock  breed,  that 
evidenced  their  Puritan  ancestry  by  a  narrowness  and 
obstinacy  past  belief.  They  never  came  to  their  meals 
at  the  proper  hours,  preferred  the  chance  pickings  of 
every  kitchen  door  in  the  neighborhood  to  the  good, 
nutritious  corn  meal  that  was  placed  regularly  before 
them  —  frequently  followed  up  by  the  spoon  with  which 
the  mixture  had  been  stirred,  when  Bobby  was  goaded 
to  desperation  by  their  contumacy  —  and  laying  their 
eggs,  when  they  condescended  to  lay  any,  in  the  most 
hidden  and  inaccessible  places.  They  displayed  a  reck 
less  disregard,  too,  for  every  canon  of  the  poultry  yard, 
giving  utterance  to  a  piercing  '  cut-cut-cutdahcut  1 ' 
whenever  vainglory  prompted,  absolutely  conscienceless 
as  to  the  deceit  thus  practised,  while  the  clarion  call  of 
the  leader  of  the  brood,  Miles  Standish,  was  as  likely 
to  sound  at  midnight  as  at  morn. 

"  You  see,"  concluded  Bobby,  shying  a  walnut  shell  at 
Priscilla,  who,  with  her  head  coquettishly  on  one  side,  was 
giving  vent  to  a  cackle  that  might  have  signalized  the 
Roc's  egg,  "  since  we  resolved  to  do  the  smooth  thing 
by  Dick,  I  've  been  kind  of  taking  account  of  stock." 

"  I  thought  Jack  Burnham  was  elected  business  editor 
last  June,"  said  Lou,  suddenly. 


THE   CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL  77 

"  He  was ;  but  he  resigned  at  the  beginning  of  this 
term,"  answered  Bobby,  briefly. 

"  Susie  told  me  that  he  had  resigned  from  nearly 
everything.  What  is  he  doing  ? "  Lou's  interest  in 
school  affairs  had  not  ceased  with  leaving  school. 

She  was  watching  Bobby  narrowly.  Burning  with 
curiosity  though  she  was  concerning  the  broken  rela 
tions  of  her  little  brother  and  his  friend,  this  was  the 
first  allusion  to  Jack  Burnham  that  had  crossed  her  lips 
since  the  latter's  election  as  Captain. 

"  How  do  I  know !  "  answered  Bobby,  impatiently. 
"  Girls  are  always  asking  fool  questions  I  " 

Lou  flushed  and  opened  her  lips  to  retort ;  but  with 
an  unwonted  effort  of  self-control,  she  held  her  peace 
and  said  with  apparent  irrelevance,  — 

"  Never  mind,  my  Robin.  Some  day  you  shall  be 
President  of  the  United  States  I  " 

"  I  do  not  know  that  I  am  particularly  anxious  to  be 
President,"  returned  Bobby,  "  as  he  was "  —  in  the 
reverent  tones  in  which  he  always  referred  to  Daniel 
Webster.  "  But  I  should  like  to  stand  in  the  place 
of  Thomas  Dudley.  I  should  like  to  write  my  name, 
1  Robert  Dudley,  By  the  grace  of  G-od  Governor  of 
Massachusetts  ! ' 

"  Thomas  Dudley,  he,"  said  Lou,  in  unconscious  imi 
tation  of  "  Biglow  Papers,"  "  was  an  old  Turk,  and  I 
should  n't  want  to  have  a  little  brother  like  him.  He 
wrote  worse  poetry  than  'Pishy,'  though  he  had  sense 
enough  to  keep  it  dark  till  after  his  death,  or  he  would 


78  THE  CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL 

never  have  carried  the  gubernatorial  campaign.  For  all 
he  was  so  aggravatingly  polite,  he  made  everybody 
stand  around  for  him  in  a  way  that  makes  me  glad 
he  is  very  dead.  And  every  single  one  of  this  family  " 
—  Lou  had  a  way  of  referring  to  "this  family,"  as 
though  she  did  not  belong  to  it  —  "  is  just  exactly  like 
him,  particularly  Betty.  Don't  you  remember  how 
old  Nurse  Ransom  used  to  say,"  she  concluded  merrily, 
" '  The  Dudleys  are  the  perlitest  children,  but  the  sot- 
test!  '  Let's  go  hi,  or  Betty  and  Evangeline  will  have 
eaten  all  the  candy." 


THE  CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL  79 


CHAPTER  SEVEN 

meeting  will  come  to  order  I"  said  Bobby, 
with  a  thundering  rap  of  the  dumb-bell  utilized 
as  a  gavel,  and  an  emphasis  that  betokened  anticipation 
of  trouble  in  carrying  out  the  motion. 

The  assistant  editors,  who  had  been  lunging  at  each 
other  with  foils,  obeyed  the  chief's  mandate  by  dropping, 
the  one  on  the  bed,  where  he  proceeded  to  make  himself 
comfortable  amongst  the  pillows;  the  other  into  the 
little  black  rocking-chair,  whence  he  was  unceremo 
niously  ejected  by  its  owner. 

"  I  say,  Bobby,  you  ought  n't  to  do  that,  you  know," 
remonstrated  the  exchange  editor,  sitting  on  the  floor  in 
his  favorite  Turk  fashion  and  rubbing  his  elbows.  "I 
mightn't  recover  from  the  shock  for  the  rest  of  my 
natural  life.  Anybody  would  think  that  that  ramshackle 
old  chair  was  the  *  Siege  Perilous.' " 

"It  will  be  for  you,  if  you  don't  keep  clear  of  it," 
returned  the  editor-in-chief,  who  never  permitted  any  one 
but  himself  to  occupy  that  throne  of  departed  greatness. 

"  I  never  thought,  myself,  that  the  '  godlike  Dan '  was 
such  very  grand  piano,"  asseverated  Lucy.  "  It  was  his 
looks  that  did  the  business  for  him,  and  the  boom  boom 
of  his  voice.  If  I  were  as  big  as  Mt.  Washington,  and 
looked  as  though  I  meant  to  have  the  whole  sidewalk  to 


80  THE   CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL 

myself,  people  would  clear  the  track  for  me,"  added 
Lucy,  in  an  injured  tone,  his  diminutive  stature  being  a 
special  grievance  with  him.  "I  really  think,  Bobby, 
that  Daniel  Webster  isn't  a  fit  example  for  you. 
You're  altogether  too  much  like  him,  as  it  is." 

"  Lucy,  who  ever  heard  of  you ! "  retorted  Bobby. 
"Daniel  Webster  would  have  walked  over  you  without 
seeing  you." 

"  The  trouble  with  him  was  that  he  was  stuck  on  him 
self,"  asserted  Lucy,  whose  associations  with  that  great 
name  were  chiefly  represented  by  black  and  blue  spots. 
"  He  always  had  his  hand  in  somebody's  pocket,  and  the 
principal  plank  of  his  platform  seemed  to  have  been  never 
to  do  anything  for  himself  that  he  could  get  another 
fellow  to  do  for  him." 

"  Where  did  you  feel  the  worst  when  you  said  that  ?  " 
demanded  Bobby.  "  Don't  you  know  some  more  libellous 
poetry  about  him  ?  " 

In  a  recent  literature  lesson  a  pitched  battle  had 
followed  Lucy's  recitation  of  "  Ichabod,"  —  a  selection 
made  with  special  reference  to  Bobby's  hero-worship. 

"  '  When  faith  is  lost,  when  honor  dies, 
The  man  is  dead  I ' ' 

spouted  Lucy,  defiantly. 

"Your  looks  will  never  get  you  votes,"  said  Bobby, 
witheringly ;  "  so,  if  you  have  set  your  heart  on  being 
President,  you'd  better  rely  on  your  scholarship  and 
lovely  manners." 


81 

Lucy's  rank  was  always  the  lowest  in  the  class ; 
he  took  the  shaft  in  good  part,  however,  merely  sug 
gesting  that  it  was  not  the  office  of  the  editor-in-chief 
to  constitute  himself  the  censor  of  his  aids'  private 
affairs. 

These  preliminaries  being  settled,  the  staff  of  the 
Snark  proceeded  to  business. 

"  As  this  is  the  first  regular  meeting  of  the  season,  it 
is  important  to  get  the  policy  of  the  paper  well  shaped 
for  the  coming  year,"  began  Bobby. 

"  Yes,  just  you  wait.  I  've  something  awfully  im 
portant  to  say,"  began  Lucy,  who  could  never  be 
brought  to  use  parliamentary  language.  He  succeeded, 
at  last,  in  dragging  from  his  pocket  a  huge  sheet  of 
paper.  "It's  a  petition  from  the  girls,"  he  explained; 
"they've  made  me  their  advocate." 

"  Of  course,"  assented  Bobby,  ironically ;  while  Taffy 
turned  on  the  pillow  with  the  request  that  he  be 
awakened  when  all  transactions  relating  to  Lucy's  love 
affairs  were  concluded. 

"  It  is  illegal  for  a  quorum  to  go  to  sleep,"  objected 
Lucy ;  and  Bobby,  who  was  a  stickler  for  parliamentary 
form,  sustained  the  objection. 

"  Fire  away !  "  added  the  chief,  momentarily  forgetful 
of  the  language  of  the  occasion. 

"  The  petition  was  drawn  up  by  Miss  Susie  Grossman, 
and  you  will  please  to  observe  its  extreme  beauty  of 
diction,"  began  the  girls'  advocate,  with  much  rustling 
of  paper  and  flourish  of  gesture.  "  I  helped,"  he  added 

6 


82       THE  CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL 

modestly.  "'Inasmuch  as  we,  the  girls  of  the  Senior 
Class  of  the  Holbrook  High  School,  constituting  a  por 
tion  of  the  school  and  of  the  community;  and  feeling, 
therefore,  that  we  represent  to  the  public  a  part  of 
the  sentiment  — ' ' 

"  All  of  it,"  interpolated  the  editor-in-chief .  "  Is  there 
much  more  in  this  line  ?  "  he  queried  anxiously. 

"  Lots,"  answered  Lucy.     "  Some  of  it  is  even  lovelier." 

"  Any  poetry  ?  " 

"There  are  some  beautiful  verses  at  the  end,"  an 
swered  the  exchange  editor,  turning  to  the  last  of  the 
four  closely  written  sheets,  and  keeping  the  intervening 
pages  suspiciously  out  of  sight.  "  They  begin,  — 

*  JT  is  not  our  choice 
That  this  our  voice  — '  " 

"  We  could  n't  stand  all  that,"  said  Bobby,  decidedly. 
"  There  seems  to  be  considerable  poetry  scattered  through 
it,  too,"  he  added,  eying  suspiciously  the  broken  lines 
of  the  preceding  pages,  as  Lucy  unwarily  turned  the 
sheet.  "  Boil  it  down  and  go  ahead,  but  leave  out  all 
the  poetry." 

"  It  is  a  pity  that  your  talent  for  command  should 
be  wasted  in  so  limited  a  sphere,"  suggested  Lucy. 
"  You  should  have  enlisted  as  Admiral  in  the  late 
war." 

"If  I  had  enlisted  as  common  seaman,"  returned 
Bobby,  composedly,  "  my  distinguished  merits  would 
have  made  me  Admiral  before  we  sighted  Minot  Ledge." 


THE  CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL      83 

Perhaps  Lucy  was  conscious  that  the  petition  was 
of  too  great  length  to  subject  to  the  patience  of  his 
fellow  editors,  for  he  complied  with  his  chief's  mandate 
without  further  self-assertion. 

"  The  substance  of  it  is,"  he  said,  "  that  the  girls 
think  they  ought  to  be  represented  on  the  paper.  They 
wish  to  present,  as  associate  editor,  Miss  Susie  Grossman, 
long  and  favorably  known  to  the  public  as  '  Pishy,'  the 
author  of  some  of  the  choicest  contributions  that  have 
appeared  from  time  to  time  in  our  columns."  At  the 
last  words  Lucy  kept  a  wary  eye  on  Bobby,  who  was 
nervously  fingering  his  gavel.  "  The  conditions  on 
which  Miss  Grossman  is  willing  to  accept  this  onerous 
position,"  he  continued  firmly,  "  are,  firstly,  that  her  name 
should  be  on  the  cover  —  " 

"  Would  she  be  willing  to  have  it  first? "  inquired 
Bobby,  with  withering  sarcasm. . 

"  I  think  she  might  possibly  consent  to  have  it 
bracketed  with  yours,"  returned  Lucy,  mildly. 

"  Perhaps  she  would  like  to  have  inscribed  beneath, — 

'  Two  lovely  berries  moulded  on  one  stem/ 
or 

'  Two  souls  with  but  a  single  thought, 
Two  hearts  that  beat  as  one,' 

or  even  one  of  her  own  beautiful  couplets,"  suggested 
the  editor-in-chief,  grimly. 

"  Secondly,"  resumed  Lucy,  with  the  manner  of  one 
who  has  heard  nothing,  "  she  expects  to  have  all  her 


84  THE   CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL 

own  contributions  accepted,  without  alterations  or  sug 
gestion  of  boiling  down ;  and  thirdly,  to  have  the  names 
of  all  her  friends  on  the  free  list.  That 's  all.  We 
really  need  another  editor,"  Lucy  went  on  earnestly, 
"  for  the  strictly  literary  department.  That  would  leave 
you  free  to  devote  yourself  to  the  general  management 
of  the  paper,  and  to  the  outside  interests  that  the  public 
unanimously  confides  to  your  care,"  concluded  Lucy, 
with  a  side  glance  at  the  petition. 

There  was  a  show  of  reason  in  these  representations, 
and  Bobby  answered  seriously,  — 

"  We  could  n't  accept  her  terms,  Lucy ;  she  wants  the 
earth.  It 's  bad  enough  as  it  is.  If  you  half  read  the 
exchanges,  you  would  see  that  every  paper  on  the  list 
has  some  mean  little  fling  at  us.  If  the  girls  were 
admitted  to  an  active  share  in  the  management,  they 
would  want  a  fashion  department  and  love  stories. 
Anyway,  I  doubt  if  it  would  increase  our  circulation 
to  have  a  distinctively  female  department.  Girls  will 
read  boys'  papers,  but  boys  won't  read  girls'  papers," 
concluded  Bobby,  voicing  an  axiom  of  the  sanctum  with 
the  manner  of  one  grown  gray  in  feeling  the  pulse  of 
public  sentiment. 

"  But  we  should  enlarge  the  paper  and  so  make  room 
for  tl>3  new  departments,"  urged  Lucy,  with  a  readiness 
that  betrayed  the  fact  that  some  such  proposition  as  that 
now  before  the  meeting  had  already  been  considered  in 
all  its  bearings.  "  My  dad  has  promised  me  a  new  tele 
scope  if  I  'd  save  up  half  the  money  to  pay  for  it ;  I  've 


THE   CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL  85 

almost  enough  now,  but  I  '11  use  the  cash,  instead,  to 
pay  the  debts  of  the  Snark  if  the  staff  is  reorganized 
in  the  manner  proposed.  Ah,  now,  do,  Bobby,"  con 
cluded  Lucy,  in  his  most  wheedling  tones. 

It  was  a  handsome  offer.  Nevertheless,  its  conditions 
seemed  too  onerous  for  immediate  acceptance,  and  after 
some  further  discussion  the  decision  was  laid  upon  the 
shelf  for  the  next  meeting.  Taffy  aroused  himself,  at 
the  demand  of  the  chief,  for  a  rendition  of  the  business 
affairs  of  the  Snark. 

"There  are  no  new  subscriptions,  and  a  number  of 
our  old  subscribers  have  fallen  off,"  he  reported. 
"Judge  Luce,  Dr.  Burnham,  my  dad,  and  some  of 
the  other  old  boys  have  sent  in  their  dues,  and  that 
is  about  all  the  money  there  is  in  the  treasury.  No  new 
ads.  Griff  asked  for  our  first  page,  but  he  would  only 
give  his  note  in  payment,  and  insisted  on  writing  the  ad. 
himself .  It  began,  '  Rome's  Chariot  Races ! '  and  went 
on  to  say  that  they  were  nothing  compared  to  the  rush 
of  customers  to  his  hencoop.  Of  course  I  would  n't  let 
him  have  the  space.  The  only  other  ad.  is  of  Miss 
Pettigrew's  millinery  shop. 

"Then  we  offered  a  prize  for  the  translation  of 
the  verse  hi  Voltaire.  You  remember  the  story.  The 
entire  stanza,  as  written,  was  innocent.  But  by  acci 
dent  it  was  torn  jaggedly  across,  and  the  fragment 
that  fell  into  the  King's  hands  read  like  high  treason. 
Old  Shattuck  thought  the  double  meaning  couldn't 
be  rendered  into  English,  and  on  the  strength  of  his 


86  THE  CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL 

opinion  we  set  up  that  five  dollars ;  but  Peddy  Seaton 
sent  in  the  translation  the  first  thing.     Here  't  is,  — 

'  With  fearful  crime  the  earth  has  shaken 

Upon  the  throne  the  King  firm  holds  his  place. 

In  peaceful  time  love  still  to  war  shall  waken, 
The  foe  alone  to  fear  is  no  disgrace.' 

"  There  was  n't  enough  money  in  the  treasury  to  pay 
the  prize,  and  somehow  those  idiots  on  the  Up-to-Date 
got  wind  of  the  state  of  our  finances,  and  in  their  last 
number  offered  a  prize  of  five  cents  for  the  most 
sympathetic  essay  on  that  touching  poem,  '  Mary  had  a 
little  lamb,'  adding  a  list  of  bankers  who  would  make 
themselves  responsible  for  the  amount.  Peterson  has 
sent  in  his  bill  again  with  the  note,  4  Kindly  remit ; '  he 
won't  do  the  work  for  us  much  longer  if  something 
is  n't  paid  on  his  bill.  I  '11  tell  you  what,  fellows," 
concluded  the  business  editor,  "if  this  sort  of  thing 
goes  on  much  longer,  there'll  be  nothing  to  do  but 
ask  for  an  assignment.  That 's  no  more  than  happens 
every  day  on  the  *  street ' ! "  In  the  vocabulary  Taffy 
affected,  "failure"  was  merely  the  obvious  way  of 
denying  one's  financial  obligations. 

"  No  school  paper  has  ever  been  known  to  fail,"  said 
Bobby,  soberly.  "  Ours  is  the  oldest  of  them  all.  Judge 
Luce  himself  was  the  founder  and  first  editor.  Be 
sides,  think  how  that  sneaking  Up-to-Date  would  crow 
over  our  downfall  1 " 

"You  might  offer  premiums  of  a  pound  of  tea,  or 
our  new  sewing-machine;  or  take  Griff  on  as  associate 


THE  CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL       87 

editor,"  suggested  Lucy,  addressing  impartially  both 
his  associates.  "  My  dad  always  used  to  read  the  Snark 
the  day  of  its  issue,"  he  went  on,  Bobby's  words  having 
happily  suggested  a  new  line  of  attack ;  "  but  the  other 
night  he  said,  *  My  son,'  "  —  Judge  Luce's  stately  manner 
was  faithfully  rendered  by  his  irreverent  son,  " '  it  seems 
to  me  that  new  life  might  be  infused  into  your  paper  I ' 
He  has  always  said,  mark  you,"  added  Lucy,  with  em 
phasis,  "  our  paper  till  lately ;  now  it  is  your  paper  1 " 

Bobby  winced,  and  Lucy,  perceiving  his  advantage, 
wisely  refrained  from  iteration. 

"  Let 's  have  some  strawberry  nectar,"  he  suggested ; 
"  I  '11  treat." 

The  editorial  staff  moved,  unanimously,  to  accept, 
and  proceeded  to  adjourn  without  delay  to  Griff's  to 
carry  out  the  resolve. 

"  Heave  ahead,  Admiral ;  fleet 's  under  way  I  " 


88  THE  CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL 


CHAPTER  EIGHT 

UNFORTUNATELY  for  the  interests  of  the  Snark, 
the  private  affairs  of  its  business  editor  were  at 
as  low  an  ebb  as  those  of  the  journal.  Even  as  a  very 
little  boy,  Taffy  Dabney  had  had  a  mania  for  specu 
lation,  coupled  with  an  aversion  to  work.  He  had 
swapped  jack-knives  and  kites,  and  made  "  corners  "  in 
marbles  and  tops,  before  he  was  out  of  kilts ;  he  had 
bought  up  the  shabby  dolls  and  baby-carriages  of  his 
girl  cousins  at  bargains,  restored  them  to  something  like 
their  original  glories  by  the  exercise  of  a  little  paint, 
calico  and  ingenuity,  and  resold  them  to  their  unsuspect>- 
ing  mammas  at  a  handsome  profit.  Later,  he  let  out 
footballs  and  bats  at  usurious  interest  amongst  the 
small  boys  of  his  acquaintance,  and  had  once  set  up 
a  lottery,  with  a  bicycle  for  a  prize,  that  for  a  time 
caused  great  excitement  in  the  neighborhood  and  a 
general  breakage  of  small  banks.  The  scheme,  unfortu 
nately,  came  to  an  abrupt  end  through  the  interference 
of  the  home  authorities,  by  whom  Taffy's  business 
acuteness  was  regarded  with  marked  disfavor. 

As  he  grew  older,  his  heroes  were  the  men  who  con 
trolled  the  great "  trusts ; "  he  watched  the  development  of 
"  corners  "  with  absorbed  interest,  and  had  a  knowledge 


THE   CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL  89 

of  the  stock  market  surprising  in  one  of  his  years.  In 
Taffy's  dreams  of  the  future,  he  beheld  himself  a  power 
on  "  'change,"  operating  to  the  extent  of  millions,  con 
trolling  legislatures  and  ruling  vast  monopolies  to  the 
advantage  of  his  own  pocket,  if  not  for  that  of  the 
public  weal.  An  idea  had  of  late  been  revolving  in  his 
mind  that  would  not  only  retrieve  his  damaged  fortunes, 
but  leave  him  with  a  handsome  base  for  future  opera 
tions.  The  following  month  the  Holbrook  Eleven  was 
to  play  its  annual  game  with  the  City  High  School. 
The  tickets  for  the  match  were  divided  between  the  op 
posing  teams,  and  their  sale  always  realized  a  handsome 
sum  for  the  respective  treasuries.  The  girls,  as  well  as 
the  boys,  were  heavy  purchasers,  and  always  appeared  on 
the  great  day  with  the  school  colors  —  green  and  white  — 
displayed  in  their  shirt  waists,  bedecking  their  hats,  and 
flying  in  knots  of  ribbon  from  their  button-holes.  The 
coming  match  promised  to  be  of  unusual  interest,  for 
the  City  team  was  working  hard  to  retrieve  its  disastrous 
defeat  of  the  preceding  year,  while  the  Holbrook  boys, 
goaded  nearly  to  madness  by  the  jibes  of  the  Up-to-Date, 
looked  upon  its  Eleven  as  the  champions  who  were  to 
avenge  the  accumulated  insults  of  their  rivals. 

The  rules  regulating  the  sale  of  tickets  restricted 
the  number  sold  to  any  one  person.  Taffy  availed  him 
self,  however,  of  an  obvious  evasion.  The  boys  of  the 
Junior  class  —  those  of  the  Middle  and  Senior  having 
grown  wary  from  experience  —  were  readily  induced, 
under  the  charge  of  secrecy,  to  act  as  agents  in  buying 


90       THE  CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL 

tickets,  either  of  the  members  of  the  team  or  at  the 
Emporium.  Griff  was  too  guileless  to  entertain  any 
suspicion  from  the  unusual  number  of  heavy  purchasers 
among  the  small  boys.  These  services  were  recom 
pensed  by  a  broken-bladed  jack-knife  or  a  dilapidated 
magic  lantern,  —  Taffy  having  found  a  large  stock  of 
second-hand  articles  useful  in  his  "  deals ; "  by  means 
of  acquaintances  in  the  city,  he  bought  largely  also 
from  the  members  of  the  opposing  team.  The  latter 
transaction  would  have  been  deemed  "shady"  in  the 
nomenclature  of  the  "  street,"  but  Taffy  had  reached  a 
pitch  of  desperation  when  he  would  scarcely  have  hesi 
tated  at  anything  short  of  actual  exposure.  For  these 
transactions  of  course  ready  money  was  necessary,  and 
Taffy  did  not  hesitate  to  make  use  of  the  trust  funds  in 
his  possession,  that  represented  a  larger  sum  than  he 
had  given  his  associates  to  understand  at  the  recent  edi 
torial  meeting.  Since  he  had  been  on  the  Snark,  the  busi 
ness  editor  had  found  it  convenient  to  borrow,  from  tune 
to  tune,  small  sums  from  its  treasury,  always  intending, 
of  course,  to  replace  them  speedily.  The  first  loan  was 
merely  for  a  postal  card ;  many  of  the  succeeding  ones, 
too,  seemed  insignificant ;  but  now,  as  he  looked  at  the 
astounding  sum  total  of  these  trifling  "  accommodations," 
his  heart  sank,  and  he  felt  that  the  success  of  his  present 
scheme  was  necessary  to  save  him  from  absolute  ruin. 
Moreover  his  "  rotary  debt "  had  fallen  into  the  hands  of 
one  of  the  "  kids  "  who  was  gifted  with  a  peculiar  power 
of  iteration.  His  dilation  on  the  summer  joys  of  "  Cutty- 


THE  CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL       91 

hunk  Island  "  had  won  him  the  sobriquet  of  "  Cutty." 
To  be  met  at  every  turn  by  a  piping  voice,  demanding, 
"Say,  when  are  you  going  to  pay  me  that  money?" 
might  have  goaded  to  desperation  nerves  more  case- 
•hardened  than  Taffy's. 

At  last  he  was  the  possessor  of  fully  three-fourths  of 
the  tickets  to  the  field ;  and  as  he  joyously  reckoned  up 
the  premium  these  would  command,  he  felt  that  he 
might  await  the  issue  of  events  with  tranquillity. 

Pending  the  football  match,  which,  indeed,  for  the 
time  being  was  relegated  to  the  background  in  public 
interest,  was  another  event,  which  promised  this  year  to 
be  of  special  interest.  As  soon  as  the  ice  was  fairly 
broken,  Holbrook  River  began  to  assume  a  lively  appear 
ance,  and  as  the  season  advanced,  every  pleasant  afternoon 
and  evening  its  tortuous  course  presented  a  lively  scene. 
The  girls  reciprocated  the  favors  of  the  boatolub  by 
embroidering  the  Club  initials  on  the  boys'  white  boat 
ing-flannels,  and  crocheting,  in  the  Club  colors,  the 
Tarn  o'Shanters  that  were  then  the  rage. 

On  Lucy's  return  from  the  Rangeleys,  he  had  brought 
with  him  a  canoe  that  was  the  admiration  and  envy  of 
every  boy  in  Holbrook.  During  the  summer  the  three 
boys  had  become  experts  hi  the  stroke  in  vogue  among 
the  guides  of  northern  Maine,  that  was  in  marked  dis 
tinction  to  that  hitherto  practised  on  the  river.  It 
was  the  introduction  of  the  "new  stroke"  that  was 
the  special  and  growing  interest  of  the  approaching 
occasion. 


92  THE  CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL 

Under  the  leadership  of  Susie  Grossman,  the  girls 
had  planned  to  present  the  winner  of  the  race  with 
a  silk  flag,  fringed  with  gold  bullion,  and  surmounted 
by  a  pennant  embroidered  with  the  Club  monogram. 

Judge  Luce,  Dr.  Burnham,  and  Mr.  Dabney  were 
to  act  as  judges;  three  canoes  were  to  take  part 
in  the  contest.  Jack  Burnham  and  Larry  Lyman,  in 
the  Kraken,  held  second  place  in  the  public  favor  to 
the  Viking,  manned  by  Bobby  and  Lucy ;  Hayti  Richards 
and  Peddy  Seaton,  in  the  Wassergeist,  completed  the  list 
of  contestants. 

"  He  is  n't  wearing  my  cap  1 "  exclaimed  Susie  Cross- 
man,  in  tones  of  deep  disappointment,  as  Bobby  appeared 
on  the  boat-house  landing. 

"He  had  thirteen  sent  him,"  responded  Lou,  pleas 
antly;  "he  never  wears  anything  but  that  old  leather 
jockey."  So,  from  the  outset,  the  leader  of  the  girls  was 
in  an  ill  humor  with  "  contests." 

With  what  his  fellows  termed  "  Bobby's  own  luck," 
the  Viking  drew  the  lot  for  the  best  position.  Owing 
to  the  peculiarities  of  the  channel,  the  rule  was  strictly 
enjoined  that  the  boats  that  elected  to  follow  the  race 
should  await  the  canoes  at  the  "  Bend,"  where  the  turning- 
stake  was  placed,  and  preserve  a  stated  distance  between 
them  and  the  contestants  on  the  home  stretch.  From 
the  start  it  was  evident  that  the  Viking  was  gaining 
rapidly  on  its  rivals,  and  when  the  stake  was  rounded 
it  was  a  canoe's  length  ahead.  As  the  three  canoes  drew 
near  the  boat-house,  there  was  the  usual  silence  that 


THE  CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL  93 

accompanies  the  close  of  a  race.  Bobby  put  all  his 
muscle  into  a  final  spurt,  that  should  send  the  Viking 
triumphantly  to  the  landing.  Unfortunately  he  under 
estimated  his  own  great  strength,  and  the  fine  spruce 
paddle  snapped  in  twain  just  above  the  blade! 

Before  the  crowd  had  fairly  taken  in  the  significance 
of  the  act,  Bobby,  alert  to  the  necessity  of  relieving  the 
canoe  of  a  dead  weight,  had  kicked  off  his  shoes  and 
jumped  overboard.  The  thrust  of  his  foot,  slight  though 
it  was,  upset  the  equilibrium  of  the  frail  craft,  and  it 
keeled  over.  Jack  and  Larry,  perceiving  their  advan 
tage,  paddled  steadily  ahead,  with  set  teeth,  gaining  with 
every  stroke  on  the  hapless  Viking. 

But  the  game  was  not  yet  up.  Quick  as  thought, 
Lucy  resorted  to  a  trick  learned  from  the  Rangeley 
guide.  Stretching  himself  at  full  length  in  the  canoe 
and  retaining  a  firm  grasp  of  the  paddle  with  his  left 
hand,  with  the  right  he  gave  the  gunwale  a  dexterous 
twitch,  pulling  the  canoe  over  on  himself.  The  light 
craft  turned  a  sort  of  somersault  and  righted  itself  with 
out  having  shipped  a  drop  of  water !  Lucy  calmly 
resumed  paddling,  and  the  Viking  glided  up  to  the 
landing  amid  the  cheers  and  waving  of  handkerchiefs, 
leaving  little  Lucy  the  hero  of  the  minute. 

With  one  foot  on  the  float,  and  one  hand  extended 
to  take  the  coveted  banner,  Lucy  turned  abruptly  from 
his  triumph.  Those  nearest  saw  that  he  turned  deathly 
pale,  and  an  inexplicable  fear  communicated  itself  to  the 
crowd.  The  plaudits  suddenly  ceased,  while  on  the 


94       THE  CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL 

balcony  above  was  a  threatened  panic,  as  people  stood  on 
chairs,  or  endeavored  to  force  their  way  to  the  front,  to 
ascertain  the  cause  of  the  evident  alarm. 

Bobby  had  not  reappeared,  only  a  few  bubbles  marking 
the  spot  where  he  had  jumped. 


THE   CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL  95 


CHAPTER  NINE 

IN  a  flash  Lucy  was  swimming  vigorously  toward 
the  spot  where  Bobby  had  disappeared.  Inter 
minable  as  the  time  seemed  to  the  waiting  crowd,  he  soon 
reappeared,  puffing  and  blowing,  and  dragging  Bobby  by 
the  hair.  Both  boys  were  promptly  pulled  into  one  of 
the  boats  that  had  hastened  to  the  spot,  and  Dr.  Burn- 
ham  was  soon  engaged  in  bringing  the  half-drowned  boy 
to  consciousness ;  his  sisters  hovered  tearfully  near,  and 
an  anxious  crowd  waited  without.  It  appeared  that 
below  the  spot  where  Bobby  had  jumped  lay  two  huge 
rocks,  covered  with  a  growth  of  rank  river  grass.  Bobby 
was  well  acquainted  with  the  treacherous  bed  of  the 
stream,  but  one  foot  had  unfortunately  slipped  into  a 
crevice  between  the  boulders,  and  his  struggles  to  free 
himself  had  resulted  only  in  the  grass  twining  itself 
more  obstinately  about  his  ankles.  Scatterbrain  though 
Lucy  was  on  every  ordinary  occasion,  an  emergency 
invariably  found  him  cool-headed  and  capable.  He  was 
now  working  diligently  under  Dr.  Burnham's  directions. 
Jack,  who  was  not  infrequently  called  into  his  father's 
office  to  assist  in  some  trifling  operation,  was  pumping 
Bobby's  arm  on  the  other  side,  his  face  white  and  drawn 
with  more  than  the  shock  of  the  occasion. 


96  THE  CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL 

Bobby  suddenly  opened  his  eyes  and  met  those  of  his 
quondam  friend. 

"  You  played  a  dirty  trick  on  me,"  said  he,  distinctly. 

"  I  know  I  did,"  answered  Jack,  humbly.  "  But,  oh, 
Bobby,  I  did  n't  see  you  when  our  canoe  went  over  you." 
He  shuddered,  and  covered  his  face  with  his  hands. 
"Don't  give  it  away,"  he  added,  panic-stricken,  for 
Lucy  had  ceased  his  vigorous  manipulations  and  was 
eagerly  listening. 

Bobby's  eyes  opened  again ;  he  spoke  with  returning 
animation. 

"  You  need  n't  be  afraid  I  '11  peach  1 "  he  answered 
scornfully. 

The  following  day  the  Holbrook  High  School  was 
thrown  Into  consternation  by  the  announcement  on  the 
bulletin  board  that  "Dudley  will  be  unable  to  play 
on  the  20th,  owing  to  a  sprained  ankle."  Great  was 
the  rejoicing  when  the  news  reached  the  camp  of  the 
enemy. 

"  It 's  like  that  sneak  of  a  Blaisdell  not  to  be  willing 
to  postpone  the  match,"  said  the  disabled  leader,  as, 
lying  on  the  shabby  old  sofa  in  the  sitting-room,  he 
consulted  with  his  friends  regarding  the  coming  emer 
gency.  "  I  'd  go  on  as  substitute,  but  Dr.  Burnham  says 
I  mustn't  use  my  ankle  for  another  week,"  making  a 
futile  attempt  to  rise  in  flagrant  disregard  of  the  doctor's 
orders.  "We'll  have  to  play  'em,  but  I  hope  they'll 
get  such  a  licking  that  the  Up-to-Date  will  be  in  mourning 
for  the  next  year,"  concluded  Bobby,  with  the  feeling 


THE  CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL      97 

with  which  Sheridan  might  have  thought  of  "Win 
chester,  twenty  miles  away,"  and  no  gallant  steed  to 
bear  him  thither. 

"  Cheer  up !  It  might  be  worse,"  said  Larry,  when 
the  council  of  war  was  at  an  end ;  but  gloom  had  settled 
upon  the  countenances  of  all  present,  and  was  not  to  be 
lightly  lifted. 

The  situation  was  unquestionably  dark.  In  the  late 
reorganization  of  the  team,  necessitated  by  Jack  Burn- 
ham's  resignation,  it  was  generally  felt  that  its  strength 
was  perceptibly  weakened.  Jack's  place  —  halfback  — 
had  been  filled  by  Lucy,  who  made  long  twisting  runs  and 
took  full  advantage  of  what  interference  was  afforded  him ; 
but  his  agility  and  "  sand  "  could  not  compensate  for  the 
natural  superiority  of  Jack,  who  was  built  for  speed. 
After  long  consultation,  Peddy  Seaton  was  promoted 
from  the  second  Eleven  to  fill  Bobby's  place,  —  quarter 
back, —  while  Taffy,  who  had  played  fullback,  was  to 
act  as  captain.  Considerable  doubt  was  felt  as  to  the 
wisdom  of  the  last  choice,  but  at  such  short  notice  it 
seemed  the  best  available.  For  so  heavy  a  fellow, 
Taffy  was  surprisingly  lively ;  he  was  acquainted  with 
the  capabilities  of  the  team,  used  his  head  well,  when 
clear,  and  could  be  relied  on — always  with  the  one 
contingency  provided  for  —  to  take  advantage  of  every 
technical  point.  The  rest  of  the  Eleven  made  him 
swear,  by  all  the  adjurations  held  sacred  by  schoolboys, 
and  accompanied  by  threats  of  the  severest  penalties  they 
could  invent,  that  he  would  abstain  from  candy  till  after 

7 


98  THE   CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL 

the  match.  Taffy,  for  the  nonce  fully  alive  to  the 
responsibilities  as  well  as  to  the  honor  of  his  position, 
gave  ready  acquiescence. 

But  without  Bobby,  who  in  the  direst  straits  had  held 
the  team  together  and  inspired  them  with  a  dash  and 
confidence  that  had  never  lost  a  field,  who  could  reckon 
on  the  result? 

Lucy  lingered  behind  the  others. 

"See  here,  Bobby,"  he  blurted  out,  "I  heard  what 
Jack  Burnham  said  the  other  day ;  of  course  I  knew  it 
all  along." 

"  Have  you  peached  ?  "  demanded  Bobby,  fiercely. 

"No,  but,  by  cracky,  I'm  going  to,"  vowed  Lucy. 
"  I  've  got  the  cinch  on  him  and  every  fellow  in  school 
is  going  to  know  the  trick  that  was  played." 

"  If  you  give  Jack  away,  you  '11  get  the  thunderingest 
licking  you  ever  came  across,"  threatened  Bobby. 
"Whatever  you  say,  I'll  swear  it's  only  one  of  your 
stunts ;  "  and  by  way  of  emphasis,  Bobby  kicked  off  the 
arm  of  the  sofa,  bringing  Chris  to  the  scene  and  putting 
an  end  to  Lucy's  denunciations. 

But  from  that  hour  Jack  Burnham's  life  became  a 
burden  to  him.  Before  his  fellows  Lucy  never  neglected 
a  salute,  accompanied  by  a  thrust  of  his  tongue  into  his 
cheek  and  a  significant  wink  at  the  resplendent  visor 
of  the  Captain's  cap;  while,  when  alone,  the  query, 
"  When  are  we  going  West  ?  "  never  failed  to  bring  the 
blood  to  Jack's  cheeks. 

In  the  world  at  large,  interest  in  athletic  sports  was 


THE   CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL  99 

chilled  by  the  accident  on  the  river.  Susie  Grossman 
declared  that  "football  was  a  horrid,  brutal  game,  and 
for  her  part,  she  did  n't  enjoy  seeing  people  having  their 
arms  and  legs  broken.  She  would  as  soon  think  of 
going  to  a  bull-fight  I  "  Besides,  of  what  interest  was 
the  game  when  Bobby  was  not  to  play  ?  The  beautiful 
banner  had  been  coldly  handed  to  Lucy  the  following 
day,  but  without  the  poem  that  was  to  have  accompanied 
its  presentation. 

The  hour  that  was  to  have  been  that  of  Taffy's 
triumph  arrived.  The  announcement  that  tickets  to  the 
match  were  to  be  obtained  only  at  a  premium  resulted 
in  the  intending  purchaser,  whose  interest  was  already 
lukewarm,  refusing  to  buy.  On  the  eve  of  the  usually 
great  day  Taffy  found  himself  in  the  possession  of  a  vast 
number  of  unsold  tickets,  a  depleted  purse,  and  confronted 
by  the  emptied  treasury  of  the  Snarlc.  His  hair  arose 
more  stiffly  than  ever,  and  to  reinforce  his  faltering 
energies,  he  regaled  himself  on  taffy  to  an  alarming 
extent,  with  the  result  of  awaking  the  next  morning 
with  a  heavy  head  and  a  queer  feeling  in  his  stomach. 
As  the  day  wore  on  and  all  remedies  failed,  he  realized 
vaguely  his  unfitness  for  the  work  before  him.  There 
seemed  no  alternative,  however,  but  to  take  his  place 
in  the  field,  and  trust  to  luck  and  the  play  of  the  rest 
of  the  team  to  win  the  game. 

It  was  a  dark  November  afternoon;  the  ground  was 
slippery  with  recent  rains.  A  high  wind  had  been  blow 
ing  all  the  morning,  that  was  momentarily  increasing 


100  THE   CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL 

in  violence.  As  the  rival  teams  appeared  on  the  field, 
their  respective  friends  cheered  lustily.  The  Holbrook 
Eleven  lined  up  well,  and  the  underlying  uneasiness 
as  to  whether  the  Captain  would  prove  equal  to  his 
position  began  to  abate.  Quiet  followed,  as  the  result 
of  the  toss  of  the  coin  was  anxiously  awaited.  Luck 
was  with  the  Holbrook  team,  and  they  won  the  right  to 
kick  with  the  wind,  now  almost  a  gale.  For  the  first 
half  both  sides  played  a  good  steady  game;  neither 
scored.  When  the  whistle  sounded,  the  ball  was  on 
the  twenty-yard  line,  in  the  enemy's  territory. 

The  second  half  began.  For  some  twenty  minutes 
neither  side  gained  the  advantage.  Then  the  Hol 
brook  team,  forcing  the  ball  slowly  but  steadily  down 
the  field,  ran  up  against  a  stone  wall  on  their  oppo 
nent's  twenty-yard  line,  where  they  were  held  for  two 
downs  and  three  yards  to  gain.  The  ball  was  quickly 
passed  to  Taffy,  but  not  kicking  high  enough,  one  of 
the  opposite  side  broke  through  and  blocked  the  kick. 
Falling  on  the  ball,  the  City  team  got  it  on  their  twenty- 
five-yard  line.  Lucy,  who  had  been  playing  a  strong 
game,  now  displayed  his  usual  coolness  in  an  emergency, 
and  saved  further  loss  by  breaking  through  again  and 
again,  stopping  any  gain.  It  was  now  Holbrook's  ball. 

Excitement  was  high,  as  only  five  minutes  were  left 
to  play.  Both  sides  went  at  it  with  feverish  energy. 
At  this  juncture  Lucy  was  given  the  ball.  Following 
his  interference  closely,  he  made  a  splendid  gain  of 
twenty  yards,  which  was  greeted  by  roars  of  applause. 


THE   CAPTAIN  OF  THE   SCHOOL  101 

The  friends  of  the  City  team  were  evidently  uneasy. 
Five  yards  more,  and  the  game  was  Holbrook'sl 

Taffy  conferred  with  the  quarterback,  who  apparently 
disapproved,  but,  being  a  good  soldier,  obeyed  orders  and 
called  off  the  signals.  To  the  surprise  of  every  one,  the 
ball  was  passed  to  the  Captain,  instead  of  to  Lucy,  who 
had  been  making  sure  gains  and  in  whom  general  con 
fidence  was  felt.  Taffy,  already  unnerved  by  the  failure 
of  his  kick,  juggled  the  ball.  Blaisdell,  quarterback  on 
the  City  team,  breaking  through,  seized  the  ball  and 
started  down  the  field,  with  the  Holbrook  team  trailing 
behind.  Even  Lucy  could  not  save  the  game  now. 
The  ball  was  carried  across  the  line,  and  a  goal  was 
kicked. 

The  whistle  sounded. 

Unable  to  restrain  himself,  Lucy  flung  himself  on  the 
ground  behind  the  goal,  and  digging  his  fingers  into  the 
mud,  cried  with  mortification  and  rage.  The  City  team 
were  wild  with  exultation.  Their  yell  arose  again  and 
again.  Taffy  slunk  out  of  sight,  and  in  silence  and 
gloom,  like  a  funeral  procession,  the  Holbrook  Eleven 
left  the  field. 

The  score  was  six  to  nothing. 


102  THE   CAPTAIN  OF  THE   SCHOOL 


CHAPTER  TEN 

DOUBTLESS  Betty's  dire  revelations  aided  to  give 
Miss  Meg  an  understanding  of  the  situation  in 
the  old  house  across  the  way,  for  soon  after  the  "  party  " 
there  was  extended  to  Chris  some  of  the  very  social 
opportunities  for  which  she  had  spent  so  many  futile 
hours  longing.  The  festivities  to  which  she  was  bidden 
might  properly  have  been  enjoyed  by  a  girl  still  in  the 
school  room,  but  to  Chris's  dazzled  vision  they  meant 
"society,"  and  her  sparkling  eyes  and  radiant  manner 
testified  to  a  delight  that  may  have  repaid  Miss  Meg 
for  her  kindly  offices.  It  was  now  an  invitation  to 
a  Symphony  rehearsal,  or  a  matine'e  at  the  theatre ; 
then  a  fair  that  had  enlisted  the  sympathies  of  the 
fashionable  world,  followed  by  the  reproduction  of  a 
classic  drama  to  which  only  the  chosen  few  were  ad 
mitted.  And  all  these  favors  were  extended  in  a 
manner  to  suggest  that  it  was  Chris  who  was  confer 
ring  the  pleasure  rather  than  receiving  it. 

Then  came  a  delightful  tea  at  Mr.  Archie  Blake's 
studio,  at  which  Miss  Meg  presided.  It  was  a  very 
dream  of  a  studio,  with  Spanish  tapestries,  carved  chests, 
rare  embroideries,  and  portions  of  shrines  black  with  age, 
that  the  young  artist  had  accumulated  in  his  wander 
ings  abroad.  There  were  soft  couches  piled  high  with 


THE  CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL  103 

cushions,  and  odd  and  beautiful  bric-a-brac,  and  best  of 
all,  a  throng  of  pleasant,  well-bred  people.  Chris  had 
never  met  so  many  people  in  her  life  before,  although 
none  would  have  suspected  the  fact,  as  she  dexterously 
shuffled  the  jargon  of  those  who  affect  art  culture. 
Young  Mr.  Courtenay,  who  was  Mr.  Blake's  chosen 
friend,  went  the  rounds  with  his  sister's  young  guest. 
Somehow  Chris,  although  always  assailed  with  an  un 
easy  desire  to  assert  herself  in  his  presence,  did  not 
venture  to  chatter  to  him  about  "atmosphere,"  "color 
scheme,"  or  "perspective,"  or  express  her  enthusiasm 
over  Monet  and  the  "  Japanese  school. " 

Miss  Herbert  had  become  absorbed  in  the  holiday 
preparations  at  St.  Barnabas,  and  Miss  Meg  invited  Chris 
to  accompany  her  in  her  Christmas  shopping.  Morn 
ing  after  morning,  the  luxurious  brougham,  with  its 
rigid,  fur-clad  coachman,  rolled  up  to  the  Dudleys'  door, 
and  Chris  was  whirled  away  into  fairyland.  Miss  Meg 
had  such  a  delightful  way  of  appealing  to  one's  taste! 
Did  her  companion  think  that  the  Dresden  coffee  service 
or  the  silver-mounted  cardcase  would  be  the  more  ac 
ceptable  gift  for  Miss  Herbert?  Would  she  prefer  the 
etching  framed  in  white  and  gold  or  the  quartered  oak ; 
and  which  would  please  Miss  Benton  better,  one  of  Mr. 
Blake's  water-colors,  or  the  choice  edition  of  Balzac? 
Then  how  charming  it  was  to  dally  over  their  luncheon, 
in  some  fashionable  restaurant,  where  they  were  often 
joined  by  a  friend  of  Miss  Meg's  and  Chris  listened, 
in  happy  bewilderment,  to  the  swift,  merry  talk  of  every- 


104  THE  CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL 

thing  that  was  going  on  within  the  charmed  circle  of 
society. 

But  it  was  at  home  that  the  effect  of  these  new  in 
fluences  was  most  perceptible.  Chris's  ideas,  naturally 
projected  upon  a  magnificent  scale,  expanded  in  this 
congenial  atmosphere  like  the  djinn  shut  up  in  the 
bottle  in  the  Arabian  Nights.  The  dollar  that  had 
looked  so  large  to  her  a  few  short  weeks  ago  shrank 
to  the  dimensions  of  a  dime,  and  any  mention  by  Nan 
of  household  expenses  was  met  either  by  a  look  of 
blank  indifference  or  by  an  impatient  rejoinder.  Then 
it  happened  that  about  this  time  there  were  several 
changes  of  servants  in  rapid  succession,  each  of  the 
dynasty,  besides  displaying  general  idiocy,  being  pos 
sessed  of  some  individual  mental  aberration.  Worn 
to  the  verge  of  nervous  exhaustion  by  their  vagaries, 
it  was  difficult  for  Nan  to  refrain  from  a  sharp  retort 
when  Chris  would  say,  with  lady-like  annoyance,  — 

"  Really,  I  am  afraid  that  Nora  has  n't  been  properly 
trained,"  when  their  maid-of-all-work,  after  listening, 
open-mouthed,  to  the  chatter  at  the  table,  letting  the 
gravy  meanwhile  drip  over  the  carpet,  burst  into  up 
roarious  laughter  at  some  pleasantry  of  Bobby's.  "  You 
would  never  know  that  the  Courtenays'  butler  heard  a 
word  that  was  said  before  him.  " 

Chris  had  always  been  given,  by  way  of  "  introducing 
a  little  variety  into  the  bill  of  fare,"  to  culling  recipes 
from  unauthorized  sources,  generally  of  the  kind  that 
gives  information  of  how  to  produce  "  a  savory  dish  " 


THE   CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL  105 

out  of  nothing  and  "  a  few  bay  leaves."  Under  the  new 
influences,  and  perhaps  also  under  an  increased  pressure 
in  the  domestic  economy,  these  hints  became  of  greater 
frequency. 

"  Why  can't  we  have  some  of  this  ?  "  she  asked.  "  *  A 
few  shalots,  a  seasoning  bouquet,  a  little  muscade  — ' ' 

"  What 's  that  ?  "  interrupted  Nan. 

"I  should  think  you'd  know;  it's  in  all  the  cook 
books,"  returned  Chris. 

"  Oh,  excuse  me,  I  thought  you  took  it  from  '  Alice 
in  Wonderland.'  You'd  better  keep  your  wonderful 
recipes  to  yourself  till  you  feel  like  doing  some  of  the 
cooking,"  retorted  Nan;  and  as  she  was  the  only  one 
of  the  family  who  possessed  any  culinary  knowledge, 
Chris  withdrew,  silenced  but  unconvinced,  leaving  her 
sister  irritated  by  the  demands  of  an  incomprehensible 
ignorance.  Nor  was  it  easy  to  keep  one's  temper 
when  the  elder  girl,  after  a  survey  of  the  dinner- 
table,  would  say,  with  an  exasperating  air  of  forbear 
ance,  as  of  one  who  was  aware  she  had  to  deal  with 
dynamite,  — 

"  We  had  mutton  yesterday.  I  should  think  it  would 
be  possible  by  taking  a  little  pains  not  to  give  us  the 
same  dish  every  day  in  the  week." 

"  Yes,  and  I  'm  sick  of  boiled  rice.  Why  can't  we 
have  plum-pudding?"  echoed  Betty,  taking  the  cue 
as  usual  from  her  eldest  sister. 

"Because  pudding  requires  eggs,  and  eggs  are  fifty 
cents  a  dozen,"  answered  Nan,  sharply. 


106  THE   CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL 

"I  do  wish  we  were  not  forced  to  listen  to  these 
miserable  details  at  every  meal,"  observed  Chris,  toying 
elegantly  with  her  spoon.  "One  never  hears  such 
things  mentioned  at  the  Courtenays'." 

Under  the  ever-present  need  of  economy,  or  the  im 
mediate  probability  of  a  famine  in  India,  or  the  collision 
of  a  comet  with  the  earth,  or  some  other  contingency 
that  Nan's  fertile  imagination  was  forever  conjuring 
up,  there  had  been  lately  a  surfeit  of  articles  of  "  simple 
and  wholesome  "  diet,  notably  in  the  form  of  rice,  which 
all  the  family  disliked,  and  for  which  Chris  had  a  consti 
tutional  aversion.  Bobby  and  Lou  at  last  combined 
forces  and  hid  the  rice-box  in  the  latter's  closet,  where  it 
speedily  attracted  every  mouse  that  rioted  between  the 
walls,  to  Lou's  retributive  terror  for  many  wakeful 
nights. 

A  few  days  before  Christmas,  as  the  brougham  rolled 
on  its  homeward  way,  Miss  Meg  mentioned  her  intention 
of  giving  a  series  of  "At  Homes,"  after  the  holidays. 
She  would  like  Chris's  help.  Might  she  rely  on  her 
to  "pour"  at  the  first  reception,  and  "assist"  at  the 
succeeding  ones? 

Such  an  invitation  meant  nothing  less  than  being 
introduced  to  society  under  the  most  favorable  auspices. 
But  quick  on  rapture  followed  consternation.  "What 
shall  I  wear?"  thought  the  girl. 

Her  last  winter's  gown,  sponged  and  pressed,  and 
freshened  with  new  trimmings  —  for  which  she  had 
spent  her  last  dollar  —  had  not  served  her  ill  for  the 


THE   CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL  107 

small  occasions  which  she  had  hitherto  enjoyed.  But 
for  the  formal  functions  that  Miss  Courtenay's  recep 
tions  would  undoubtedly  be,  a  new  gown  was  absolutely 
necessary.  Its  attainment  seemed  as  far  beyond  possi 
bility  as  a  costume  from  Worth. 

The  common  cause  to  which  all  had  vowed  themselves 
Chris  had  easily  put  out  of  sight,  in  the  preceding  weeks, 
by  the  reflection,  "After  Christmas  I  shall  have  the 
embroidery  money  from  the  holiday  sales,"  and  it  had 
not  disturbed  her  equanimity  that  in  the  pleasures 
of  the  past  few  weeks  there  had  been  neither  time  nor 
thought  for  needlework. 

Miss  Meg  was  quick  to  note  and  interpret  the  shadow 
that  crossed  the  girl's  face. 

"  Nothing  could  be  prettier  than  a  simple  white  gown," 
she  said  kindly. 

Delicate  as  were  her  perceptions,  it  did  not  occur  to 
her  that  her  companion  might  find  it  difficult  to  compass 
even  so  modest  an  outlay  as  that  suggested.  Chris  was 
always  dressed  like  a  lady  and  her  manner  gave  no  hint 
of  any  dearth  in  her  home  circumstances. 

There  arose  before  the  girl  a  vision  of  herself  in  a 
dainty  white  gown,  dispensing  graceful  hospitality  in  the 
Courtenay  drawing-room.  She  forced  back  the  tears 
as  she  faltered, — 

"  But  —  I  have  never  poured." 

"  Of  course  not ;  it  is  your  *  come-out '  tea,"  answered 
Miss  Meg,  promptly,  and  with  a  delightful  assumption 
that  Chris  understood  the  full  measure  of  that  which 


108  THE   CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL 

was  offered.  "I  will  trust  you  to  acquit  yourself 
creditably,"  she  added,  and  evidently  looked  upon  the 
matter  as  settled. 

Was  there  no  way  —  must  the  gate  of  Paradise  be 
closed  in  her  very  face? 


THE   CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL  109 


CHAPTER  ELEVEN 

"TT's  all  Colonel  Jerome's  fault  I"  exclaimed  Nan. 

A  "  Ever  since  his  name  was  mentioned,  the  whole 
household  has  been  turned  topsy-turvy.  He  looms  in 
my  mind  as  the  grim  Visitor  upon  the  Threshold,  with 
naming  eyes,  horns,  and  a  forked  tail,  sent  straight  from 
Hades  with  all  the  trials  that  individually  are  the  most 
burdensome  to  us,  and  infernally  commissioned  to  goad 
us  into  the  virtues  we  most  abhor." 

"This  is  the  Grossest  family  in  the  United  States," 
said  Lou,  even  whose  equable  temper  had  suffered  under 
the  spell  of  the  coming  Visitor. 

"  You  're  the  Grossest  person  in  it,"  wailed  Betty, 
without  much  idea  of  what  she  was  saying,  but  feeling 
called  upon  to  contribute  to  the  stormy  state  of  the 
atmosphere,  as  she  salted  her  porridge  with  tears,  in 
anticipation  of  losing  her  recess  for  tardiness,  —  a 
prospective  calamity  that  did  not,  however,  accelerate 
her  movements,  always  characterized  by  the  utmost 
deliberation. 

"  I  do  believe,  if  the  house  were  on  fire,  you  would  n't 
get  out  of  it  till  you  were  ready,"  said  Nan,  whose 
temper  was  already  ruffled  by  Chris's  strictures  on  her 
housekeeping.  The  elder  girl,  who  loved  her  bed,  had 
come  down  to  the  breakfast-table  to  find  that  Monday 


110  THE   CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL 

morning  exigencies  compelled  her  to  the  task  of  waiting 
upon  herself.  Betty,  having  essayed  to  gulp  down  a 
glass  of  water  with  her  mouth  full  of  toast,  gasped  and 
coughed  till  she  was  red  in  the  face.  ' 

"  There  now,  you  want  me  to  suffochoke,"  she  wailed. 
"I  needn't  chokeocate  myself  to  death  even  if  it  is 
washing-day,  need  I,  Chrissy?" 

"  If  you  did,  there  would  be  one  torment  the  less  in 
the  world,"  retorted  Nan. 

"  Betty  is  my  charge,"  said  Chris,  sharply.  "  I  wish 
you  would  remember  that  you  have  nothing  to  do 
with  her  bringing  up.  Take  your  time,  Betty,  and 
I  will  write  you  a  note  of  excuse." 

"You'll  say  it  was  disa voidable  and  that  you  don't 
want  me  to  be  kept  in  at  recess,  because  my  constitution 
requires  fresh  air  at  the  same  time  as  the  other  children," 
stipulated  Betty,  who  always  insisted  that  these  frequent 
missives  should  be  written  on  her  sister's  choicest  billet 
paper,  with  what  she  regarded  as  the  utmost  elegance  of 
diction,  and  with  a  scrupulous  regard  for  commas  and 
semicolons,  notwithstanding  Chris's  representations  that 
punctuation  in  letter-writing  was  out  of  fashion. 

"  Admirable  bringing  up  I "  commented  Nan,  as  the 
elder  girl  gave  impatient  compliance. 

Until  the  approach  of  Christmas  all  of  the  family  had 
kept  their  vow  to  "abstain,  renounce,  refrain,"  with  a 
heroism  worthy  of  the  cause.  But  even  adamant  may 
show  the  effect  of  the  wear  and  tear  of  time,  and  as  the 
air  grew  frosty,  and  the  whispers  of  holiday  joys  and 


THE   CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL  111 

secrets  were  audible  on  every  side,  it  was  hard  to  feel 
one's  self  shut  out  from  the  spirit  of  the  season.  In 
previous  years,  no  matter  at  how  low  an  ebb  their 
private  purses  had  been,  Christmas  had  never  passed 
without  an  interchange  of  gifts,  though  there  might  be 
only  a  ribbon  for  Chris,  a  pencil  for  Nan,  the  bonnet  pin 
that  was  always  an  acceptable  present  to  Lou,  a  ball  of 
twine  for  Bobby,  or  the  "jaw-breaker"  esteemed  by 
Betty  an  appropriate  offering  for  every  occasion,  from 
a  christening  to  a  wedding.  And  the  good-will  and  fun 
that  had  accompanied  the  gifts  made  Christmas  festive. 

"  At  all  events,  let  no  one  mock  my  dearth  by  giving 
me  a  Christmas  card,"  announced  Nan.  "  I  would  much 
rather  have  a  postal  card.  And  let  it  be  known  through 
out  the  land  that  I  refuse  to  accept  any  '  Lines '  with  the 
*  n '  left  out  —  on  the  '  Holiness  of  Disappointment '  or 
the  *  Elevating  Effects  of  Poverty '  by  Frances  Ridley 
Havergal." 

Each  member  of  the  family,  too,  cherished  the  convic 
tion  that  he  or  she  had  been  singled  out  as  the  particular 
victim  of  the  spite  of  the  coming  "  Visitor."  Chris  sat 
a  Peri  at  the  gate  of  a  social  Paradise,  and  she  might  not 
enter  in;  the  pipers  were  piping  unto  her  the  latest 
entrancing  waltz  and  she  might  not  dance.  Nan,  with 
the  anticipation  of  certain  bills  that  would  come  in  with 
the  new  year,  found  her  every-day  worries  particularly 
burdensome;  flour  went  up,  the  coal  gave  out  unduly, 
the  sugar-scoop  knelled  against  the  bottom  of  the  barrel, 
and  a  threatened  potato  famine  gave  all  the  family 


112  THE  CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL 

a  sudden  inordinate  appetite  for  a  vegetable  regarded 
with  general  disfavor  in  the  normal  state  of  the  market. 
Even  Lou,  hitherto  deemed  invulnerable  to  worry,  went 
about  with  clouded  brow.  Her  winter  wardrobe  had 
been  stored,  as  usual,  under  the  apparent  conviction  that 
all  the  moths  and  buffalo  bugs  in  the  United  States  had 
entered  into  a  confederacy  to  devour  her  clothes.  But 
camphor,  mothballs,  pepper,  snuff,  tar  paper,  and  various 
other  "  sure  preventatives  "  had  seemingly  been  regarded 
as  so  many  appetizing  condiments  for  wool  and  fur. 
None  who  knew  Lou  could  ever  forget  the  spectacle  as 
with  monosyllabic  tragedy,  "  Look ! "  she  held  at  arm's 
length  her  beloved  chinchilla  muff  and  with  a  direful 
shake  sent  the  downy  fur  flying  in  every  direction,  even 
as  a  dandelion  puff  is  scattered  by  the  ruthless  wind. 
If  that  cedar  chest,  whose  boasted  properties  had 
proved  so  frail,  had  contained  the  bones  of  poor  suffo 
cated  Gi^gvra,  or  even  her  own,  it  could  not  have 
held  deeper  woe  for  Lou.  Even  the  feathers  on  her 
bonnet  took  on  a  dejected  droop,  and  the  bow  upon  the 
hat,  which,  to  assuage  her  grief,  she  immediately  set 
about  trimming,  had  no  more  the  piquant  set  into  which 
her  deft  fingers  were  wont  to  fashion  ribbon. 

Bobby  had  soon  thrown  away  the  cane  upon  which  he 
hobbled  after  his  mishap  on  the  river ;  but  the  disastrous 
defeat  on  the  ball  field  was  a  tragedy  not  to  be  lightly 
cast  aside,  and  his  difficulties  with  the  Snark  increased. 
The  next  issue  of  the  Up-to-Date  contained  a  paragraph 
to  the  effect  that  "  the  rumor  stating  that  the  football 


THE   CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL  113 

team  of  the  Holbrook  High  School,  as  well  as  its  official 
organ,  the  Snark,  had  recently  come  under  the  manage 
ment  of  the  girls,  appears  to  be  well  founded."  Bobby 
contemplated,  for  a  period,  calling  out  the  editor  of  his 
"  esteemed  contemporary "  to  single  combat,  but  finally 
contented  himself,  after  sitting  up  till  midnight  seeking 
inspiration  from  a  volume  of  Webster's  speeches,  by 
writing  an  editorial  that  should  demolish  his  rival  even 
as  the  famous  speech  of  his  great  Exemplar  crushed 
Haynes.  Then  Lucy  was  showing  an  unprecedented 
contumacy  in  regard  to  Susie  Grossman  and  her  out 
rageous  demands.  "Pishy's"  contributions  grew  more 
lachrymose  and  her  verse  had  more  halting  feet,  as 
each  new  acceptance,  "  thanking  her  for  the  favor,"  in 
the  assistant  editor's  best  handwriting,  put  a  fresh  leaf 
into  her  laurel  crown. 

Of  the  real  and  appalling  financial  condition  of  the 
Snarlc,  Bobby  had  no  conception.  It  had  never  occurred 
to  him  to  examine  the  accounts,  and  Taffy,  at  the 
business  meeting  following  the  football  match,  readily 
evaded  the  request  of  his  easy-going  chief  for  a  report. 
Bobby  went  on  to  point  out,  in  vigorous  language,  that 
it  was  the  duty  of  the  business  editor  to  make  the 
rounds  of  the  shops  and  offices  in  the  city,  soliciting 
holiday  advertisements.  But  Taffy  was  ill-tempered 
under  the  continued  strictures  of  his  fellows  at  the 
loss  of  the  game,  and  their  jibes  at  the  result  of  his 
"corner."  Moreover  the  ever-present  fear  of  his  "de 
falcation"  being  discovered,  seemed  likely  to  result 


114  THE   CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL 

in  chronic  biliousness.  To  his  chief's  peremptory  lan 
guage  he  retorted  that  Bobby  "could  do  some  of  the 
work  himself,  instead  of  being  so  precious  fond  of  order 
ing  other  fellows  about." 

So,  after  the  "motion"  had  been  duly  proposed, 
seconded,  and  carried,  it  remained  a  "resolve,"  to  be 
fulfilled  on  the  day  when  the  leopard  should  have 
changed  his  spots  and  Taffy  cast  his  sloth. 

Everybody  in  Betty's  class  was  asking,  "What  are 
you  going  to  have  Christmas  ? "  and  it  was  mortifying 
to  be  unable  to  hint  of  the  prospective  contents  of  a 
plethoric  stocking,  even  though  a  haughty  silence 
might  be  construed  to  cover  anticipations  too  large 
to  be  lightly  dwelt  upon.  Besides  the  personal  disap 
pointment,  it  seemed  wicked  to  Betty  not  to  have 
Christmas  presents.  In  particular  did  she  covet  a  cer 
tain  article  in  the  Emporium  as  a  gift  for  Lou.  This 
was  a  box  represented  to  hold  dominoes,  but  from 
which,  at  the  unwary  touch,  a  mouse  sprang  forth 
with  a  terrifying  squeak.  Every  day,  after  school,  ac 
companied  by  Evangeline,  Betty  entered  the  Emporium, 
and  standing  on  tiptoe  before  the  counter,  said,  — 

"  I  am  not  thinking  of  making  any  purchases  to-day,  Mr. 
G.  William,  but  would  you  be  so  kind  as  to  let  me  see  the 
article  I  am  considering,  I  thank  you,  if  you  please  ?  " 

Whereupon  Griff  would  climb  to  the  topmost  shelf, 
remove  several  boxes  of  stationery  and  bales  of  calico, 
and  set  the  simulated  domino  box  before  his  courteous 
customer.  Betty,  giggling  with  as  much  zest  as  though 


THE   CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL  115 

she  saw  the  toy  for  the  first  time,  shot  out  the  mouse  at 
Evangeline,  and  presently,  with  renewed  thanks,  left  the 
shop,  leaving  Griff  to  climb  to  the  top  shelf  again  and 
replace  the  "article"  in  its  appointed  place.  It  was 
on  one  of  these  visits  that  another  customer  was  at 
tracted  by  the  toy.  Griff  looked  inquiringly  at  Betty ; 
the  child's  face  fell. 

"  Happy  to  place  anything  to  your  credit,  Miss 
Dudley,"  said  the  shopkeeper,  who  showed  his  appreci 
ation  of  Betty's  politeness  by  always  treating  her  "  as 
though  she  were  grown  up." 

But  with  eyes  brimming  over,  Betty  shook  her  head 
and  hurried  from  the  shop. 

"Why  didn't  you  get  it?"  queried  her  companion, 
tantalizingly. 

"  I  wish  you  to  understand,  Evangeline,"  said  Betty, 
in  measured  tones,  "  that  I  have  plenty  of  income  from  my 
sheep  in  Montana  —  and  the  rag-bag,"  she  was  about  to 
add,  but  f  eeling  that  the  latter  source  of  revenue  reflected 
less  lustre  upon  her  social  status  than  the  Western  flocks, 
held  back  the  words.  "  I  have  another  demand  for  my 
money  at  present,  I  thank  you,  if  you  please." 

"Aren't  you  going  to  buy  any  more  jaw-breakers, 
either  ?  "  questioned  Evangeline,  who  had  always  been  a 
greedy-eyed  participant  in  the  feast,  when  Betty,  sur 
rounded  by  half  a  dozen  of  her  friends,  seated  herself  on 
the  doorstep  of  the  Emporium,  and  with  the  aid  of  a 
rock  and  the  exercise  of  all  her  strength  pounded  the 
flinty  delicacy  into  equable  fragments. 


116  THE   CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL 

" Not  at  present,"  answered  Betty.  "I  —  I  think  so 
much  candy  is  not  good  for  my  constitution."  As  she 
spoke,  she  cast  a  longing  glance  at  the  shop  window; 
but  perhaps  luckily  for  her  resolution,  her  little  purse 
was  at  home.  She  had  given  up  carrying  it,  of  late,  as 
the  surest  way  of  not  yielding  to  temptation. 

"  Ho,  I  don't  believe  you  're  going  to  give  any  Christ 
mas  presents  —  or  have  any,  either,"  said  Evangeline. 

Betty's  red  face  and  unwonted  silence  betrayed  the 
fact  that  the  nail  had  been  hit  on  the  head. 

"  I  expect  a  bottle  of  white  rose  perfumery,"  continued 
Evangeline.  "  Are  n't  you  really  going  to  have  anything 
in  your  stocking  ?  H'm,  too  bad ! "  she  added,  with  an 
infuriating  assumption  of  sympathy. 

For  the  remaining  tune  before  Christmas  she  pursued 
Betty  with  that  query,  in  season  and  out,  alone  and 
before  her  mates,  while  she  was  not  suffered  to  pass  the 
Emporium  without  a  twitch  of  her  skirt,  and  an  insistent 
"  Look  I  "  till  Betty  was  goaded  to  the  pitch  of  desper 
ation  that  hesitates  at  nothing. 

An  unrivalled  opportunity  presently  offered  to  rein 
state  herself,  not  only  in  her  own  self-esteem,  but  in 
public  opinion,  as  represented  by  Evangeline.  It  was 
this  expedient  that  proved  the  climax  of  the  trials  that 
had  already  made  the  holiday  season  anything  but  a  joy 
ful  period  to  the  young  Dudleys,  and  which  was  to  prove 
the  final  tug  to  the  strain  to  which  the  individual  endur 
ance  of  Chris  and  Nan  had  already  been  subjected. 


THE   CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL  117 


CHAPTER  TWELVE 

IF  Betty  could  not  receive  or  give  Christmas  presents, 
and  the  latter  deprivation  bore  the  more  heavily  upon 
her,  she  would  have  the  measles.  Philly  Carr  was  ill 
with  that  interesting  malady,  and  a  surreptitious  visit  to 
the  rectory  nursery  had  its  speedy  result  in  Betty's 
supreme  satisfaction,  and  the  following  letter,  written 
at  the  invalid's  dictation :  — 

DEAR  EVANGELINE,  —  I  am  very  ill.  Dr.  Burnham  does 
not  know  when  I  can  go  to  school  again.  Maybe  I  never 
can.  If  I  die,  you  may  have  my  cornelian  ring.  If  you 
come  to  my  funeral,  Evangeline,  you  must  be  sure  not  to 
giggle,  and  please  don't  cry  on  a  handkerchief  that  has  any 
of  that  smelly  perfumery  on  it,  because  I  can't  bear  it. 
Besides,  my  sister  Chrissy  says  nobody  but  servant-girls 
use  smelly  handkerchiefs,  and  you  know  you  have  never 
been  to  a  funeral  at  our  house,  so  you  must  try  to  behave 
properly,  or  I  shall  be  very  much  mortified. 

Of  course  you  have  never  had  the  measles,  either.  I 
have  to  lie  abed  in  a  dark  room.  It  is  very  unagreeable. 
The  doctor  says  I  must  not  use  my  eyes.  I  wish  you  a 
Merry  Christmas.  I  hope  you  will  never  have  to  go  to  bed 
in  the  daytime. 

Your  affectionate  friend, 

BETTY  BRADSTREET  DUDLEY. 

P.  S.    I  hope  you  will  never  feel  so  miserable  as  I  am. 
P.  S.     I  have  lots  of  lemonade  to  drink,  and  Dr.  Burnham 
says  I  may  have  barley  balls.    They  are  ever  so  much  nicer 


118  THE   CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL 

than  jaw-breakers.  I  have  saved  some  for  you.  I  presume 
you  have  never  had  any.  My  sister  Chrissy  sings  to  me, 
and  Nan  tells  me  stories  ;  Lou  makes  paper  dolls  with  the 
loveliest  hats  and  bonnets  you  ever  saw,  and  Bobby  lets  me 
cuddle  his  hares  without  telling  me  I  'm  choking  them  to 
death. 

The  last  privilege  represented  an  unlooked-for  con 
cession.  Since  Bobby  had  added  four  lovely  fluffy  Bel 
gian  hares  to  his  list  of  pets,  the  task  of  keeping  them 
prisoners  had  proved  almost  too  much  for  his  energies. 
"There  go  my  hares,"  was  the  exclamation  that  cut 
short  conversation  at  almost  any  point,  followed  by  an 
exit  through  the  nearest  window.  Betty  was  generally 
to  be  seen  tiptoeing  away  in  the  opposite  direction ;  the 
little  creatures'  quivering  noses,  pressed  against  the  bars 
of  the  hutch,  were  interpreted  by  her  as  "  queeking  to 
be  let  out,"  and  her  tender  heart  could  not  withstand 
the  entreaty. 

The -entire  family,  indeed,  vied  with  one  another  in 
attentions  to  the  complacent  invalid,  who,  not  very  ill 
at  any  time,  made  such  rapid  progress  toward  recovery 
that  in  a  few  days  she  might  safely  have  left  her  bed. 
But  Betty  was  by  no  means  inclined  to  relinquish  so 
agreeable  a  position  as  that  of  the  centre  of  attraction, 
and  as  her  nurses  began  to  relax  in  their  devotion, 
she  hit  upon  an  expedient  that  should  not  only  recall 
their  recalcitrant  sympathies,  but  whereby  she  might 
feel  that  she  was  enacting  the  pleasing  role  of  invalid 
with  due  fidelity  to  the  originator  of  the  part.  Instead, 


THE   CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL  119 

therefore,  of  hailing  Dr.  Burnham's  permission  to  get  up 
with  the  expected  rapture,  she  flatly  refused  to  avail 
herself  of  it  at  all,  and  proceeded  to  give  a  faithful 
rendition  of  Philly  Carr's  plaintive  manner  of  speech 
and  "cunning  little  ways."  As  the  doctor  had  given 
stringent  caution  regarding  injury  to  the  eyes,  the 
sway  that  Betty  exercised  at  all  times  over  the  house 
hold  by  reason  of  her  easy  tears  was  increased  to  high 
handed  tyranny. 

"  Me  to  tick,  me  to  tick  I  "  she  moaned  in  every  varia 
tion  of  tone  and  inflection,  listening  the  while  to  her 
own  accents  with  the  most  unbounded  satisfaction. 

She  insisted  upon  having  all  her  treasures  piled  upon 
a  chair  by  the  bedside ;  every  morning,  before  dawn,  she 
pried  open  with  a  crooked  hairpin  the  contents  of  the 
little  tin  savings-bank  in  which  she  deposited  her  hoard, 
and  at  the  top  of  her  voice,  with  the  effect  of  awaking 
every  one  in  the  house,  counted  the  pennies,  to  see 
how  much  interest  had  accumulated  over  night.  At 
last,  after  having  apparently  exhausted  every  ingenuity 
of  wearisome  device,  she  demanded,  in  the  frenzied  tones 
of  a  parent  from  whose  fond  arms  her  child  has  been 
ruthlessly  torn,  her  "  de'  Milly  "  —  metamorphosed  from 
"  Old  Mill."  A  search  from  attic  to  cellar  by  the  entire 
family,  spurred  by  wailing  accents  from  the  sick-room, 
resulted  at  last  in  the  discovery  of  Milly  in  a  mud- 
puddle  at  the  foot  of  the  garden  terrace,  her  lissome 
body  nearly  reduced  to  paper  pulp  and  her  once  fair 
features  run  together  in  an  indistinguishable  blur  of 


120  THE   CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL 

red  and  blue.  It  appeared  that  Betty's  imagination  had 
recently  been  fired  by  "Marmion"  and  the  fate  of 
Constance  de  Beverley.  The  tragedy  was  consummated 
by  utter  forgetf ulness  of  her  child's  unhappy  end. 

Milly  was  put  into  the  oven  to  be  dried  as  speedily  as 
possible.  She  was  taken  out  so  shrunken  and  distorted 
as  to  leave  room  for  doubt  as  to  which  were  her  arms 
or  legs ;  a  new  set  of  features  was  hastily  sketched  by 
Nan  and  worked  in  red  silk  by  Chris.  It  was  scarcely 
surprising,  goaded  as  the  fellow  artists  were  by  the  insis 
tent  voice  from  the  sick-room,  irritating  as  the  buzz  of 
a  mosquito,  that  Nan's  rendering  of  "  beauty's  matchless 
eye"  was  all  too  literal,  or  that  Chris's  needle  should 
have  wrought  what  was  intended  for  a  glowing  smile 
into  a  frenzied  expression  of  distrust  and  anguish  —  too 
well  justified,  alas!  Nor  was  it,  perhaps,  surprising 
that  when  at  last  this  transmogrified  Milly  was  laid 
in  her  parent's  arms,  it  was  only  to  be  denied  recogni 
tion,  and  hurled  across  the  room. 

Betty  had  always  had  an  insatiable  appetite  for 
stories,  and  when  she  visited  other  little  girls,  they 
frequently  hid  their  books,  knowing  that  if  their  play 
mate  once  possessed  herself  of  an  interesting  tale,  she 
was  oblivious  to  everything  else  till  it  was  read  from 
cover  to  cover.  She  had  devoured  all  the  books  in 
Bobby's  library,  "  Mr.  Midshipman  Easy,"  "  Westward 
Ho,"  and  "  The  Rose  of  Paradise "  being  as  dear  to 
her  as  to  their  owner.  She  read  Shakspeare,  too,  with 
all  the  avidity  of  a  bright,  imaginative  child,  poring  over 


THE   CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL  121 

the  plays,  of  course,  only  for  the  stories,  but  finding  in 
the  high-sounding  nomenclature  and  resonant  lines  the 
delight  known  only  to  the  fantasies  of  childhood. 

But  her  special  joy  was  a  certain  fat  and  dirty  volume 
of  fairy  tales  that  had  been  in  the  Dudley  family  for 
generations,  and  which  contained,  among  other  dear  and 
forgotten  stories,  "  Prince  Percinet,"  "  The  Three  Med 
lars,"  and  "  The  Invisible  Prince,"  of  which  Betty  never 
wearied.  She  was  at  home  in  the  entire  realm  of  fairy  lore, 
and  whenever  she  broke  a  lucky  bone  or  found  a  four- 
leaved  clover,  her  wish  was  always  for  that  boon  of  the 
good  fairies,  a  "  wishing  ring."  The  sly  glance  at  her 
hand  revealing  only  the  familiar  cornelian  band  held  real 
disappointment,  for  with  never  lessening  faith  she 
thought  at  each  trial,  "  Perhaps  this  time  a  good  fairy 
will  hear ! " 

When  Nan,  whose  reading  was  omnivorous,  told  her 
a  story,  Betty  always  insisted  that  it  should  begin  "  Once 
upon  a  time,"  no  matter  how  well  authenticated  the  date 
of  action ;  while  it  must  end  "  And  they  lived  happy 
ever  after,"  though  disaster  dire  had  overtaken  every 
body  in  the  tale ;  no  princess  was  to  be  regarded  as  truly 
of  the  blood  royal  who  had  not  "long  and  beautiful 
curly  golden  hair  that  reached  to  her  waist,  and  far  be 
low  it ;  "  nor  was  any  prince  deemed  worthy  of  the  title 
who  was  not  "  tall,  fair,  and  handsome,  and  mounted  on  a 
snow-white  steed  that  galloped  like  the  wind."  A  steed 
Betty  supposed  to  be  something  quite  different  from  a 
horse. 


122      THE  CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL 

But  now  her  sole  demand  was  for  the  nursery  tale  of 
the  "  Three  Little  Pigs." 

"  Tell  itty  dirl  about  piggy-wiggy  1 "  she  lisped. 

"'Oh,  no,  by  the  hair  on  my  chinny  chin  chin,'" 
wearily  repeated  Nan,  who  had  been  chosen  the  special 
victim  of  this  new  infliction.  No  matter  how  slight  the 
variation,  Betty  was  quick  to  note  any  departure  from 
the  accepted  version. 

"  De  naughty  wolf  could  n't  get  in  1 " 

"No,  he  couldn't  get  in;  the  pig  had  locked  the 
door,"  assented  Nan,  with  stifled  wrath. 

"You  left  out  sumsin,"  said  the  listener,  detecting 
an  attempt  to  abridge  the  narrative. 

"Oh,  do  let  me  tell  you  something  else  I"  implored 
Nan.  "I  see  the  wolf  and  the  pigs  in  my  dreams.  I 
wake  in  the  night,  saying, — 

'  I  '11  huff  and  I  '11  puff, 
And  I  '11  blow  your  house  in  I ' 

I  know  a  lovely  story  about  a  man  called  the  'Pied 
Piper,'  "  she  went  on,  in  honeyed  accents;  "  it  begins, 

'Rats! 

They  fought  the  dogs  and  killed  the  cats, 

And  bit  the  babies  in  the  cradles, 

And  ate  the  cheeses  out  of  the  vat, 

And  licked  the  soups  from  the  cook's  own  ladles.' " 

With  a  wild  whoop  the  audience  vanished  beneath 
the  bedclothes,  whence  issued  the  muffled  words, — 

"Rats!  Me  so  'f'aid!  Tell  piggy-wig  — "  came  the 
nagging  voice,  as  Betty  cautiously  poked  one  eye  from 


THE  CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL  123 

beneath  the  coverlid.  "Where's  my  handkercher ? " 
she  murmured  huskily,  as  her  sister  showed  signs  of 
rebellion. 

Conquered,  Nan  began  again,  till  another  malign 
prompting  from  the  patient, — 

"Piggy-wig  had  long,  booful  turly  dolden  hair  that 
weached  —  " 

It  was  too  much  for  mortal  patience.  Nan  arose  to 
her  full  height. 

"  He  had  n't  1 "  she  screamed,  and  fled  incontinently. 

It  was  Bobby  who  brought  on,  at  last,  the  dreaded 
catastrophe.  He  had  recently  bartered  his  telephone  for 
a  tiny  alligator,  with  a  mouth  that  curved  gently  into 
a  tail  that  gave  the  little  reptile's  only  sign  of  life  in 
an  occasional  gentle  wiggle.  The  alligator  was  in  his 
winter  torpor,  and  must  be  given  nothing  to  eat  till 
the  spring,  his  former  owner  cautioned. 

"  See  what  I  Ve  brought  you,  Bettykins,"  said  Bobby, 
and  laid  this  attractive  pet  by  his  sister's  side. 

There  was  a  prolonged  howl,  and  a  frantic  jump  out 
of  bed. 

"You  don't  mean  to  say,"  demanded  Bobby,  con 
temptuously,  "that  you're  scared  of  that  tadpole?" 

Betty  had  clambered  upon  a  chair,  and  was  drawing 
her  nightgown  about  her  ankles.  It  was  difficult  to 
distinguish  the  words  amid  the  torrent  of  sobs, — 

"  I  'm  —  afraid  —  he  '11  —  eat  me  up ! " 

Bobby  snatched  up  the  alligator,  and  giving  the  little 
tropical  exile  the  warmth  it  craved  inside  his  shirt-sleeve, 


124  THE  CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL 

marched  off  to  his  den  in  high  dudgeon  at  the  reception 
of  his  offering. 

The  shock  of  terrified  surprise  soon  merged  into  that 
of  consuming  curiosity,  and  the  following  morning 
Betty  decided  to  get  up.  Waiting  till  Bobby  was  safely 
out  of  the  way,  she  stole  to  her  brother's  room  and  had 
the  supreme  satisfaction  of  cuddling  the  "dear  little 
baby  alligator  "  to  her  heart's  content.  But  alas  1  when 
Bobby  returned  from  school,  it  was  to  find  that  the  little 
tail  had  given  its  last  wiggle  in  this  mortal  world  and 
that  the  smile  was  fixed  forever  in  celestial  curves. 
Fragments  of  bread  and  meat  near  by  rendered  a  post 
mortem  unnecessary. 

Betty's  grief  at  the  untoward  result  of  her  kindness 
was  so  overwhelming  that  Bobby,  after  the  first  wrathful 
explosion,  forbore  reproaches. 

"  Never  mind,  Bettykins,  you  did  n't  know,"  he  said 
generously.  "I  dare  say  it  would  have  been  lonesome 
here,  all  alone,  for  the  little  'gator,  and  he  would  have 
been  homesick  if  he  'd  lived  to  grow  up.  I  '11  stuff  him 
and  stand  him  on  his  hind  legs,  and  put  a  tray  in  his 
forepaws,  and  you  shall  have  him  for  your  very  own  I " 

But  Betty  only  sobbed  a  heart-broken  refusal  of  this 
handsome  offer. 

"  We  '11  have  a  nice  little  funeral,  then,"  suggested 
Bobby.  "  Let 's  throw  him  into  the  river.  He  '11  feel 
more  at  home  there  than  if  we  buried  him  in  the 
garden." 

Chris  gave  the  mourners  her  fan  box,  into  which  the 


THE   CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL  125 

little  defunct  fitted  to  a  nicety,  and  Betty,  taking  a 
mournful  pleasure  in  the  obsequies,  cast  the  box  from 
the  bridge,  while  Bobby  repeated  an  impromptu  epitaph, 
thus  refuting  the  dictum  of  his  idol,  that  "  no  man  can 
be  extemporaneous  with  the  occasion,"  — 

"  Floating  down  the  Holbrook  river, 

With  his  tail  stretched  out  behind, 
And  his  head  beneath  the  billows, 
Steering  straight  before  the  wind ! " 


126  THE   CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL 


CHAPTER  THIRTEEN 

BOBBY  was  whistling  "On  the  Banks  of  the 
Wabash,"  as  he  tramped  his  homeward  way  in 
the  early  darkness,  his  skates  —  Lucy's  Christmas  gift 
—  slung  over  his  shoulder,  and  his  blood  still  tingling 
with  the  rollicking  good  tune  on  the  river.  As  he 
passed  the  Emporium,  some  vagrant  impulse  led  him  to 
kick  open  the  door  and  fling  in  a  cheery,  — 

"Hi,  Griff  1" 

There  was  no  response.  Bobby  perceived  that  the 
dim  light  came  from  the  open  door  of  the  stove,  before 
which  Griff  was  crouching,  apparently  oblivious  of  any 
thing  that  might  be  going  on  about  him. 

"  Griff  —  Hi  —  hullo  I  I  say  —  Griff,  are  you  asleep  ?  " 
announced  the  visitor.  "Why  don't  you  light  up,  in 
stead  of  letting  a  fellow  break  his  neck  over  your 
truck?"  he  demanded  indignantly,  rubbing  his  shins, 
which  had  come  into  violent  contact  with  the  coal-hod. 

"  Wait  a  moment,"  answered  the  shopkeeper,  fumbling 
for  the  match- safe,  which  was  kept  on  the  top  shelf, 
behind  some  bales  of  lining  goods.  Bobby  meantime 
seized  the  coal-hod,  and  poured  its  remaining  contents 
upon  the  handful  of  dying  embers  in  the  stove. 

"It's  colder  than  Greenland  here,"  he  grumbled. 
"Why  don't  you  keep  your  ranch  decently  warm  ?  " 


THE   CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL  127 

"  It 's  —  it 's  all  the  coal  there  is,"  answered  Griff, 
meekly,  coughing  behind  his  hand  in  a  deprecatory  man 
ner.  His  voice  was  suspiciously  hoarse;  his  eyes,  as 
seen  hi  the  light  of  the  flickering,  ill-smelling  lamp, 
were  red  and  swollen  to  a  degree  not  to  be  accounted  for 
by  even  the  heavy  cold  from  which  he  was  evidently 
suffering.  Bobby  seized  him  unceremoniously  by  his 
thin,  shrunken  shoulders,  and  twirled  him  around. 

"Don't  ee,  Bobby,"  said  the  youth,  blinking  feebly 
under  the  fixed  gaze  that  confronted  him. 

"  You  're  blubbering,"  said  Bobby. 

It  did  not  occur  to  him  to  offer  sympathy  for  Griff's 
trouble,  whatever  it  might  be;  only  the  usual  boyish 
contempt  for  tears  was  modified,  in  the  present  instance, 
by  a  vague  feeling  that  anything  idiotic  or  snivelling 
might  be  expected  of  Griff.  The  charge  was  too  pal 
pably  true  for  denial.  Drawing  a  rag  from  his  pocket, 
Griff  mopped  his  eyes,  concluding  by  a  dolorous  blast 
on  his  nose. 

He  was  half  a  dozen  years  Bobby's  senior,  but  he 
could  not  remember  the  time  when  he  was  not  afraid 
even  to  express  to  another  a  contrary  opinion.  He 
was  too  dull  of  wit  and  tame  of  spirit  to  resent,  in 
telling  retort  or  the  swift  blow  with  which  Bobby  would 
have  answered  an  insult,  the  scoffs  and  jibes  of  his 
school-boy  patrons.  Bobby,  with  the  half-kindly,  half- 
contemptuous  toleration  of  the  very  strong  for  the 
weak,  had  taken  no  part  in  this  persecution,  and  al 
ways  threw  Griff  a  careless,  pleasant  word  when  the 


128  THE   CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL 

horde   of    school-boys   took    possession    of    the    little 
shop. 

Bobby  seemed  to  Griff  like  a  being  from  another 
sphere,  whose  handsome  face  and  lordly  bearing  were 
something  to  be  wondered  at  and  gloated  over  and 
speechlessly  adored.  For  Griff  had  never  dared  voice 
his  worship  —  otherwise,  perhaps,  than  by  calling  its 
object  Bobby  —  when  Lucy  was  not  present;  on  those 
occasions  the  endearing  name  was  replaced  by  a  quaver 
ing  "  Mr.  Captain  Dudley."  It  was,  however,  happiness 
enough  to  place  before  his  idol  turnovers  and  cream- 
cakes  galore,  and  to  watch  them  disappear  with  the 
celerity  of  a  conjuror;  while  he  was  all  alacrity  and 
smiles  when  Bobby  "treated"  the  crowd,  frequently 
to  the  extent  of  exhausting  the  Emporium's  stock  of 
comestibles. 

When  the  heedless  throng,  their  hands  full  of  cates, 
rushed  from  the  shop,  Griff  stood  at  the  window,  strain 
ing  his  eyes  for  a  last  glimpse  of  Bobby,  racing  up  the 
hill,  always  an  easy  length  ahead  of  his  mates.  At 
the  top  he  turned  his  eager,  flushed  face  and  awaited 
the  oncoming  of  the  others.  Then  shoulder  to  shoulder 
with  Jack  Burnham,  Bobby's  voice  and  laugh  rising 
above  the  others,  the  merry  squad  tramped  back  to 
school. 

There  was  no  one  in  all  the  world  whom  Griff  had 
envied  as  he  did  Jack  Burnham.  Merely  to  feel  Bobby's 
hand  upon  his  shoulder  would  have  given  him  a  happi 
ness  beyond  anything  he  had  ever  known.  Vaguely  it 


THE   CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL  129 

seemed  to  the  hapless  youth  that  the  mere  touch  would 
infuse  something  into  him  that  would  transform  his 
very  nature.  The  strongest  emotion  that  had  ever 
stirred  his  feeble  pulse  was  that  of  indignation  on 
the  day  when  Lucy  told  him  of  Jack's  "dirty  trick." 
That  one  singled  out  before  all  men  by  the  gift  of 
Bobby's  friendship  could  have  shown  himself  unworthy 
of  such  a  boon  was  to  Griff  scarcely  less  than  the  fall 
of  the  archangels. 

"  What 's  struck  you  ?  "  demanded  Bobby. 

At  the  blunt  words,  and  still  more,  the  tone  of  sur 
prise  and  curiosity  and  unbounded  contempt,  Griff, 
covering  his  mouth  with  his  fingers,  gave  a  vacuous 
little  laugh,  that  suddenly  ceased  as  he  realized  his 
temerity  at  doing  anything  without  permission. 

"  Lemme  go,  Bobby,"  he  quavered. 

"  Not  till  you  've  told  me  what 's  up, "  responded 
Bobby,  enforcing  his  mandate  by  a  shake  that  may 
have  been  intended  to  be  gentle,  but  which  made 
Griff's  teeth  chatter  and  his  knees  knock  together. 

But  the  shopkeeper  stood  his  ground  with  unpre 
cedented  tenacity. 

"  Le'  go,"  he  gasped,  making  a  futile  effort  to  wriggle 
out  of  his  captor's  clutch. 

"  Tell  me  what  you  were  howling  about  I "  com 
manded  Bobby. 

His  finely  developed  head,  set  squarely  on  his  shoul 
ders,  was  thrown  slightly  back,  as  was  his  habit  when 
in  earnest ;  his  deep-set  eyes  beneath  their  level  brows 

9 


130  THE   CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL 

held  Griff's  shuffling  gaze.  Yet  it  was  less  the  master 
ful  accents,  or  even  that  iron  grip  on  his  shoulder  to 
which  the  cringing  youth  yielded,  than  the  mere  un 
conscious  domination  of  the  strong  nature  over  the 
weak. 

"  Lucy  —  Lu  —  "  he  stammered. 

"  What  has  Lucy-lu  been  doing  to  you  now  ? "  in 
quired  Bobby,  mildly,  but  with  a  twinkle  in  his  eyes 
that  nearly  caused  another  collapse  of  his  captive. 

"  It  was  —  about  that  notice  —  in  the  show  window," 
quavered  Griff. 

Bobby's  eyes  strayed  to  the  superb  display  of  pop 
guns,  tin  trumpets,  and  miniature  flags,  to  which  the 
attention  of  the  public  was  called  by  the  flamboyant 
placard,  "  Come,  let  us  reason  together." 

"  I  know  't  ain't  just  what  folks  expect  for  Christmas," 
pleaded  Griff,  "but  I  hadn't  spot  cash  to  buy  for  the 
holiday  trade,"  he  spoke  with  a  pitiful  assumption  of 
importance,  "and  the  wholesalers  wouldn't  give  me 
credit.  I  thought  I  could  make  the  things  do  that  were 
left  over  from  Fourth  of  July.  Advertising  is  the  soul 
of  trade,  and  I  did  mean  to  work  up  a  holiday  boom. 
But  Taffy  wouldn't  print  my  advertisement  —  it  was  a 
fine  one,  sure  to  have  brought  a  run  of  customers," 
interpolated  Griff,  regretfully,  —  "  and  just  now  —  Lucy- 
lu  came  in  and  —  and  —  said  that  that  notice  in  the 
window  was  from  the  Bible.  He 's  —  he  's  —  been  ask 
ing  me  —  if  I  thought  the  author  of  the  text  was  calling 
the  attention  of  Moses  to  the  cheapness  of  things 


THE   CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL  131 

in  the  gimcrack  line.  I  —  I  don't  know  what  to 
do  — oo!" 

Bobby's  solution  of  the  question  was  simplicity  itself. 

"  If  Lucy-lu  comes  poking  'round  again,  kick  him  out 
of  the  ranch." 

"I  —  I  —  could  n't,"  whimpered  Griff,  fearsomely 
looking  over  his  shoulder,  as  though  he  expected  the 
momentary  appearance  of  the  dread  "  Visitor  "  to  whisk 
him  off  to  perdition. 

"Why  in  thunder  couldn't  you?  Lucy  isn't  up 
to  my  shoulder,"  returned  Bobby.  "Even  you  might 
lick  him,"  added  Lucy's  friend,  amiably  unconscious 
of  the  uncomplimentary  inflection. 

"He  —  he  pointed  his  finger  at  me,"  whimpered 
Griff. 

Bobby  sank  on  the  nearest  seat  and  laughed  till  he 
could  laugh  no  more. 

"Who'd  have  thought  you  were  a  greater  fool  than 
you  looked  ?  "  he  ejaculated  at  length,  faintly.  And  Griff 
did  not  even  know  that  there  was  anything  in  the  words 
to  call  for  resentment. 

"I  —  I  can't  expect  to  prosper  in  business  when  it 
is  n't  my  real  calling.  I  've  always  thought  my  vocation 
was  something  quite  different  till  — "  Griff  glanced 
at  the  placard  and  showed  symptoms  of  breaking  down 
again.  "No,  if  the  ministry  isn't  my  calling,  either, 
it  does  seem  as  though  there  was  n't  any  place  for  me 
anywhere  in  the  world." 

Bobby  felt  a  faint  stirring  of  pity  for  the  blubbering 


132  THE   CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL 

youth,  of  the  kind  he  would  have  felt  for  a  starving 
cat.  But  as  he  did  not  know  just  how  to  express  his 
good  will,  he  merely  gave  the  stove  another  shake,  and 
picked  up  the  book  over  which  Griff  had  been  poring. 
He  dropped  it  as  though  it  were  one  of  the  coals  in 
the  now  glowing  bed  of  embers. 

"  The  Bible  I "  he  exclaimed. 

The  Bible  was  for  church  and  Sundays.  He  would 
have  said,  perhaps,  if  he  had  ever  given  the  subject 
a  thought,  that  perhaps  ministers  and  sick  people  and 
old  women  read  it  on  week-days ;  but  to  find  any  one 
absorbed  in  its  pages  to  the  same  extent  that  he  would 
have  felt  himself  in  "  Tom  Brown  "  or  "  Westward  Ho," 
struck  him  as  a  development  of  human  nature  worthy 
of  a  freak  museum. 

"I've  kept  it  under  the  counter  or  in  a  drawer," 
explained  Griff,  shamefacedly.  "  I  suppose  that  it  was 
because  some  text  was  always  running  in  my  head 
that  I  put  that  notice  in  the  window.  You  see,  Bobby," 
he  added  solemnly,  "  I  am  the  round  man  in  the  square 
hole.  I  was  intended  for  a  minister." 

"I  —  I  don't  know  that  I  ever  heard  you  mention 
it  before,"  remarked  Bobby,  tentatively,  fearful  of  in 
ducing  another  flood  of  tears. 

"That  was  why  ma  named  me  Griffith,"  continued 
the  youth,  in  a  tone  struggling  between  complacency 
and  grief.  "  It  means  '  One  having  great  faith.'  After 
I  gave  up  my  hopes  of  the  pulpit  and  got  kind  of  dis 
couraged,  generally,  I  thought  I  had  no  right  to  the 


THE   CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL  133 

beautiful  name,  and  so  called  myself  '  G.  William,'  till 
Lucy  made  me  tell  him  my  full  name."  Griff  was 
speaking  now  under  the  necessity  of  a  weak  nature 
for  pouring  itself  forth  into  the  first  channel  that 
offered.  The  flood  of  confidences,  once  let  loose,  swept 
irresistibly  on. 

"  I  never  cared  to  play  with  the  other  boys  in  our 
village.  I  hated  rude,  rough  games,  like  football  —  " 

"H'm,"  remarked  the  stalwart  Captain  of  the  Hoi- 
brook  team. 

"  That  is  —  I  —  well,  it  looks  a  good  deal  like  fight 
ing,  you  know,"  said  Griff,  in  alarm.  "  My  Sabbath- 
school  teacher  always  told  me  that  fighting  was  a  sin." 

"Worse  than  a  sin;  it  is  a  blunder,"  acquiesced 
Bobby,  in  amiable  rendering  of  the  great  Frenchman's 
dictum,  "  when  you  are  the  fellow  who  will  get  licked." 

"Mamma  says  I  used  to  be  the  perfect  image  of  a 
little  minister,"  Griff  went  on.  "  My  hair  was  done 
in  a  long  curl  on  the  top  of  my  head ;  and  I  had  such  a 
sweet  way,  she  says,  of  sitting  with  my  hands  folded —  so 
—  the  very  image  of  the  '  little  Samuel.'  "  Griff  rolled  his 
eyes  ceilingward  as  the  finishing  touch  to  this  affecting 
picture,  forgetting  in  his  self-absorption  the  easily 
excited  risibilities  of  his  auditor.  Bobby,  however,  was 
finding  these  revelations  so  entertaining  that  he  was  able 
to  exercise  an  unusual  control  over  his  facial  muscles. 
It  would  be  nuts  for  the  fellows. 

"  When  I  was  five  years  old,  my  favorite  book  was 
the  *  Memoirs  of  the  Rev.  Jedediah  Mugridge,'  by  his 


134  THE   CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL 

sister,  the  saintly  Martha  Ann  Mugridge,"  resumed 
Griff. 

"  Who  in  thunder  was  he  ?  "  inquired  Bobby,  with  an 
irrelevant  thought  of  the  well-worn  volume  of  the  "  Life 
of  Daniel  Webster." 

"  He  went  as  missionary  to  the  Sandwich  Islands,  and 
there  he  passed  away,"  sighed  Griff. 

"Did  they  eat  him?"  inquired  Bobby,  in  animated 
tones. 

"He  took  cold,  one  day,  going  to  Sabbath-school 
without  his  overshoes.  He  was  of  a  consumptive 
tendency,  like  me."  Griff  spoke  with  an  assumption 
that  pulmonary  weakness  and  a  call  to  the  ministry 
were  identical. 

"  He  was  rather  an  ass,  was  n't  he,  to  go  off  in  that 
style?",  commented  Bobby,  his  interest  in  the  Rev. 
Jedediah  suddenly  subsiding. 

"I  used  to  preach  sermons  to  anybody  who  would 
listen—" 

"  Who  in  time  would  ?  "  interrupted  his  auditor,  in 
blank  amazement. 

It  was  curious,  again,  that  just  then  there  should  have 
come  into  his  head  his  own  fervid  deliveries  of  Daniel 
Webster's  speeches  to  an  enthusiastic  home  circle. 
What  did  this  wretched  weakling  know  of  ambition  — 
of  hero  worship  I 

"  Well,  mamma,"  answered  Griff.  "  She  sewed  for  a 
living,  but  contrived  to  lay  up  a  little  money  each  year, 
so  as  to  be  able  by  and  by  to  send  me  to  the  theological 


THE  CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL  135 

seminary.  It  was  about  time  for  me  to  enter,  when  her  eyes 
gave  out  and  she  had  to  take  all  her  savings  for  doctor's 
bills  and  medicine.  But  she  wanted  me  to  be  a  minister 
just  the  same.  She  said  she  could  die  happy  after  she  'd 
heard  me  preach  my  first  sermon.  Then,  just  in  the  nick 
of  time,  —  or  so  it  seemed  at  first,  —  an  old  lady  who  was 
interested  in  the  '  Society  for  the  Propagation  of  Min 
isters,'  offered  to  pay  my  way  through  the  theological 
school." 

"  Old  ladies  should  attend  to  their  duties  as  grand 
mothers,  and  not  be  so  precious  fond  of  sending  into  the 
world  to  preach  the  Gospel  chinless  beings  who  say 
*  How  ? ' "  said  Bobby,  reflectively,  and  with  no  intention 
of  hurting  any  one's  feelings.  "  Go  ahead !  " 

"  Mamma  said  she  could  get  along  without  my  help," 
continued  Griff,  "but  I  knew  what  that  meant, — 
sitting  up  half  the  night,  sewing,  and  living  on 
bread  and  tea.  I  thought  and  I  thought,  till  my  head 
swam,  —  my  head  swims  kinder  easy,"  he  added  apolo 
getically.  "  Well,  the  end  of  it  all  was  that  I  gave  up 
the  idea  of  being  a  minister,  and  began  to  look  about  for 
some  way  to  support  mamma  and  me.  But  there  seemed 
no  room  for  me  in  our  town.  At  last  I  heard  of  the 
opening  here,  and  by  scraping  together  all  our  money, 
I  bought  out  this  shop  and  good  will.  But  I  'm  clean 
discouraged  1 "  Griff  fumbled  at  his  handkerchief  again 
before  he  went  on.  "It's  no  use  trying  to  keep  my 
head  above  water  any  longer.  I  Ve  got  to  make  a  com 
promise  with  my  creditors.  Only,  I  don't  see  how 


136  THE  CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL 

mamma  and  I  are  going  to  get  along  without  the  shop, 
little  as  it  brings  in.  I  Ve  been  into  the  city  nearly  every 
day,  going  the  rounds  of  the  stores  and  offices ;  but  I  'm 
too  old  for  errand-boy,  and  too  young  for  a  place  in  the 
counting-room,  even  if  I  knew  anything  about  book 
keeping  or  could  write  a  decent  hand.  I  can't  lift  nor 
carry  and  —  and  somehow  there  seems  something  about 
me  that  makes  folks  mad.  There 's  no  —  room  —  for  me 
anywhere  —  in  the  world  I " 

Bobby  looked  at  him  speculatively.  It  was  a  kind  of 
revelation  that  there  could  be  any  one  whose  presence 
did  not  carry  its  own  welcome. 

"What  did  they  say?"  queried  the  popular  boy, 
curiously. 

"  Sometimes  all  they  said  was,  *  No,' "  answered  the 
boy  for  whom  there  was  "no  room."  "But  oftener 
they  told  me  to  *  get  out,'  or  they  'd  kick  me  out  if  I 
showed  up  again.  I  made  the  mistake,  once  or  twice, 
of  going  to  the  same  place  a  second  time.  Generally, 
going  out,  I  tripped  over  a  bale  of  goods  or  the  waste- 
paper  basket,  and  'most  always  left  the  door  open.  Then 
they  swore,"  narrated  Griff.  There  was  no  rancor  in 
his  tone  at  the  recollection  of  his  treatment.  Kicks  and 
cuffs  were  his  birthright.  "  I  took  cold  'long  o'  going 
without  an  overcoat  and  getting  my  feet  wet,  nights  and 
mornings,  delivering  papers."  The  accumulated  weight 
of  his  miseries  was  too  much  for  Griff's  slight  remaining 
self-control,  and  breaking  down,  he  sobbed  unrestrainedly. 

"  How  did  you  get  your  feet  wet,  and  why  did  you 


THE   CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL  137 

go  without  your  overcoat?"  questioned  Bobby.  The 
laughter  was  gone  from  his  eyes  now,  the  good-natured 
scoffing  from  his  voice. 

"  I  have  n't  any  overcoat,  and  my  overshoes  leaked  so 
that  they  were  worse  than  none." 

"You  mustn't  ask  for  an  assignment,''  said  Bobby, 
after  a  prolonged  pause.  "  We  '11  give  you  a  free  ad.  in 
the  Snark,  —  I'll  write  it  myself,"  he  addsd  quickly. 
"  Oh,  by  the  by,  I  'm  owing  you  a  little  something ; 
you'd  better  send  in  the  bill.  How  much  is  it?" 

"I  don't  know  —  not  much  —  it  isn't  of  the  slightest 
consequence,"  answered  Griff,  hastily.  "  Now  don't  ee 
mind  about  that,  Bobby.  I  can  wait  just  as  well  as  not. 
I'd  —  I'd  rather." 

"  Get  out  your  books,"  commanded  Bobby. 

Still  mumbling  a  protest,  the  trembling  youth  obeyed. 

"Now  see  what  I  owe  you,"  said  the  masterful 
voice. 

Twice,  thrice,  Griff  attempted  to  obey ;  but  the  figures 
swam  before  his  eyes  and  each  addition  gave  a  different 
sum. 

"  I  can't,"  said  he,  at  last,  helplessly. 

"  Get  out  and  let  me,"  returned  Bobby. 

He  glanced  at  the  page  before  him  and  his  look  of 
surprise  changed  to  one  of  incredulity.  Then  he,  too, 
cast  up  the  long  rows  of  figures,  again  and  once  again, 
and  Griff  watched  the  handsome,  resolute  face  grow 
white  and  set,  and  was  too  scared  and  abased  and  miser 
able  to  utter  a  word. 


138  THE  CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL 

"  I  had  no  idea  it  was  so  much,"  said  Bobby,  at  last, 
quietly. 

"I  never  meant  to  ask  you  to  pay,  Bobby,"  faltered 
Griff,  wishing  with  all  his  wretched  soul  that  he  had 
thrust  the  ledger  into  the  fire  before  it  had  come  to 
his  idol's  view.  "I  —  I  wish  you 'd  take  it  as  a  little 
present." 

"  Do  you  think  I  'd  take  that  sort  of  a  present,  —  and 
from  you,  you  idiot ! "  responded  Bobby,  without  definite 
intention  of  giving  pain,  but  speaking  out  of  his  own  sore 
perturbation  of  mind.  "  There 's  an  ulster  at  home  I  've 
outgrown  that  will  fit  you.  You  must  not  go  around 
with  the  papers  while  you  have  that  cold.  I'll  take 
care  of  them  for  the  present.  The  morning  newspapers 
come  out  on  the  six-o'clock  train,  don't  they  ?  Oh,  dry 
up ! "  he  added  impatiently,  as  Griff  attempted  an  inco 
herent  jumble  of  protest  and  thanks.  It  was  difficult  to 
refrain  from  kicking  such  an  adorer. 

In  the  worship  of  this  cringing  youth,  who  had  gone 
without  proper  food  and  clothing  that  he  —  Bobby  — 
might  regale  himself  and  his  mates  on  pies  and  cake, 
he  felt  vaguely  that  there  was  something  equally 
degrading  to  both  giver  and  recipient.  As  he  left  the 
shop,  he  thought  that,  after  all,  he  would  not  tell  Griff's 
story  to  the  fellows. 

Immediately  after  supper  he  went  to  his  own  room, 
but  not  to  study;  when  he  tried  to  fix  his  thoughts 
upon  the  pages  of  "  Iphigenie,"  instead  of  the  German 
text,  rows  of  ominous  figures  danced  before  his  eyes. 


THE   CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL  139 

At  last  he  cast  the  book  aside  and  gave  himself  up  to 
a  study  of  his  difficulties. 

The  most  obvious  solution  was  to  apply  to  Lucy. 
But  though  his  friend  under  the  circumstances  was 
too  generous  to  make  stipulations,  Bobby  felt  that  so 
great  an  obligation  would  necessitate  yielding  the  point 
on  which  his  little  henchman  had  set  his  heart,  and 
admitting  Susie  Grossman  to  the  editorship.  That  was 
a  concession  hardly  to  be  contemplated.  Besides,  the 
afternoon's  humiliating  revelations  had  somehow  placed 
even  Lucy's  favors  in  a  different  light,  and  school-boy 
honor  revolted  at  the  idea  of  borrowing  money  to  pay 
for  treats. 

He  leaned  back  in  the  chair  that  had  been  Daniel 
Webster's,  and  almost  mechanically  took  down  the 
treasured  "  Life."  But  for  the  first  time  its  pages 
seemed  to  hold  no  inspiration,  —  to  be,  indeed,  as  flat 
and  tame  as  the  "  Memoirs "  of  the  Rev.  Jedediah. 
Besides,  Bobby  felt  sure  that  the  great  "Expounder" 
was  never  tormented  by  a  girl  who,  if  the  situation 
were  paltered  with,  might  write  poetry  about  his  hair! 
Trivial,  ridiculous  though  that  consideration  might 
seem,  it  was  an  element  in  the  problem  that  could  not 
be  eliminated. 

"  Robin  love,"  called  Lou,  "  there 's  a  man  downstairs 
to  see  you.  His  name  is  Peterson." 


140  THE  CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL 


CHAPTER  FOURTEEN 

"  T  HATE  to  bother  you,  Bobby,"  said  the  printer,  with 

JL  genuine  regret  in  his  tones.  "  I  've  been  here  two 
or  three  times  without  finding  you  in." 

The  slip  of  paper  he  was  twisting  uneasily  in  his 
hands  told  his  errand.  Bobby  felt  that  he  was  being 
baited  in  every  direction. 

"  What  do  you  think  I  generally  do,  afternoons,  — 
sit  at  home  and  knit?"  he  inquired  with  unwonted 
asperity. 

"  I  've  done  the  work  less  for  you  than  I  would  for 
any  one  else,"  went  on  the  man.  "  But  times  are  hard 
and  there  are  always  extra  bills  coming  in  with  the  New 
Year.  I  haven't  been  able  to  work  lately,  either, 
because  of  the  grip.  If  you  could  make  a  partial  pay 
ment,  it  would  be  a  real  help,  and  the  rest  of  the  account 
could  stand  awhile  longer." 

"  I  leave  all  the  business  affairs  of  the  paper  to  Mr. 
Dabney,"  explained  Bobby,  magnificently.  "  If  you  will 
take  the  bill  to  him,  he  will  no  doubt  make  a  satisfac 
tory  arrangement." 

"  I  've  been  to  him  again  and  again,"  returned  the 
printer,  "  but  he  keeps  putting  me  off ;  there  has  n't 
been  a  cent  paid  me  this  year.  I  've  had  to  mortgage 
the  plant  to  get  absolute  necessities.  My  wife  is  sick 


THE   CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL  141 

now,  and  the  doctor  has  ordered  food  and  medicine  for 
which  I  must  have  spot  cash." 

"  It  is  all  right,"  answered  Bobby,  reassuringly.  "  I 
don't  understand  why  the  bill  has  not  been  settled,  in 
part,  at  least.  But  I  will  look  into  the  matter  without 
delay.  I  promise  you  a  partial  payment  within  a  week." 

"  Thank  you,  Bobby,"  answered  Peterson,  as  grate 
fully  as  though  he  had  received  a  substantial  favor. 
"  We  all  like  to  see  you  come  into  the  office,  and  you 
stick  type  first-rate  for  a  beginner." 

The  following  day  Bobby  lost  no  time  in  seeking  his 
subordinate. 

"Why  in  thunder  haven't  you  paid  Peterson?"  he 
demanded  in  his  most  peremptory  tones. 

"  How  in  thunder  can  I  rake  any  money  together 
when  nobody  will  read  the  rot  you  print?"  retorted  the 
business  editor,  with  equal  emphasis.  "  Have  you  seen 
the  last  number  ?  " 

Bobby  confessed  that,  being  absorbed  in  the  construc 
tion  of  an  ice-boat,  he  had  relegated  to  the  exchange 
editor  the  duty  of  seeing  the  Snark  through  the 
press. 

"  Look  here,  then  I  "  Taffy  flourished  a  copy  of  the 
school  journal  in  his  chief's  face.  "  Do  you  see  that 
stuff  on  the  first  page  ?  " 

Bobby  looked  aghast  at  the  editorial  column.  The 
"  leader  "  modelled  on  the  "  Reply  to  Haynes  "  had  been 
suppressed,  and  its  place  was  filled  with  a  poem  by 
"  Psyche  "  commemorating  the  incident  at  the  "  Bend," 


142  THE  CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL 

and  dwelling,  in  the  most  tender  language  of  the  muse, 
upon  the  hero's  hair,  as  it  lay  in 

**  Damp  and  clust'ring  ringlets 
On  his  wet  and  pallid  brow !  " 

"  I  '11  lick  Lucy  within  an  inch  of  his  life ! "  exclaimed 
Bobby.  "  I  never  knew  such  an  idiot.  I  wish  I  could 
burn  the  whole  edition.  I  suppose  the  papers  have  all 
been  sent?"  he  inquired  anxiously. 

"  Every  copy,"  answered  Taffy,  grimly.  "  Lucy  took 
care  of  that,  too;  he  seems  to  have  been  under  the 
impression,  lately,  that  he  is  the  whole  team." 

"  I  shall  never  be  able  to  live  it  down,"  declared 
Bobby,  after  a  gloomy  silence. 

"  I  should  think  not,  indeed,"  assented  the  business 
editor,  with  ill-timed  cordiality.  "Sweet  pretty  title, 
is  n't  it  ?  — '  The  Hero  ! '  Compares  you  to  Marcus 
Aurelius,  jumping  overboard  to  save  your  cause.  I 
think  we  shall  probably  need  an  extra  edition.  Orders 
are  pouring  in  from  the  City  High." 

Bobby  read  the  poem  through  in  rising  wrath  at  his 
perfidious  associate. 

"I'll  kick  him  off  the  ranch,"  he  vowed  hotly. 
"Something's  got  to  be  done  about  this  account,"  he 
went  on,  when  he  could  withdraw  his  thoughts,  even 
momentarily,  from  Lucy's  treachery.  He  produced 
Peterson's  bill.  "  How  much  money  is  there  in  the 
treasury?" 

"  Not  a  red,"  answered  the  business  editor,  wrought  to 


THE  CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL  143 

a  pitch  of  desperation  by  his  chief's  strictures  and  the 
long-continued  strain  of  anxiety  and  secrecy.  It  was  an 
actual  relief  to  know  that  the  crash  was  at  hand. 

"  How 's  that  —  what 's  become  of  the  money  paid  in 
by  our  regular  subscribers  and  the  old  boys  ?  "  queried 
Bobby,  sharply. 

"  I  borrowed  it  a  few  weeks  ago,"  replied  Taffy,  coolly. 
"  The  fact  is,"  he  went  on,  struggling  to  maintain  his 
assertive  attitude  before  the  look  of  slow-dawning  com 
prehension  on  Bobby's  face,  "  I  thought  I  saw  a  chance 
of  making  my  pile.  But  things  did  n't  come  out  as  I 
thought  they  would,  and  I  was  cleaned  out.  I  had  a 
perfect  right  of  course,  as  business  manager,  to  make  any 
temporary  use  of  the  Snartts  funds  that  I  saw  fit.  The 
law  allows  a  director  the  use  of  ten  per  cent  of  the  com 
pany's  funds ;  if  ten  per  cent,  why  not  fifty  or  a  hun 
dred  ?  "  argued  Taffy.  But  somehow,  with  Bobby's  eyes 
fixed  upon  him,  the  argument  was  not  so  convincing  as 
it  had  been  when  he  rehearsed  it  to  himself,  as  he  had 
done  many  times  within  the  past  weeks. 

"  I  believe  that  was  the  line  of  defence  adopted  by  the 
President  of  the  Peveril  Bank,"  returned  Bobby,  slowly. 
Quick  of  understanding  though  he  was  on  ordinary 
occasions,  he  had  not  yet  grasped  the  fact  that  the 
business  editor  of  the  school  journal  had  appropriated 
its  money  to  his  own  ends. 

Taffy  winced.  His  father  was  one  of  the  directors  of 
the  Peveril  Bank,  and  he  had  heard  expressed,  daily, 
emphatic  opinions  regarding  its  late  President. 


144  THE  CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL 

"  Men  do  it  on  the  *  street,'  every  day,  —  smart  fellows, 
too,"  he  answered,  striving  to  maintain  his  assured  front. 

"They  sometimes  wind  up  in  State's  Prison,  as  the 
result  of  their  '  smartness,' "  suggested  Bobby,  quietly,  — 
very  quietly. 

"  Of  course  I  mean  to  pay  back  the  money  sometime," 
continued  Taffy,  misled  by  his  chief's  tone.  After  all, 
Bobby's  never-failing  good-nature  could  be  relied  on  not 
to  kick  up  a  row.  "  Why  don't  you  ask  Lucy  to  pay 
Peterson?"  he  asked.  "We  could  rub  along  awhile 
longer,  if  this  crisis  could  be  bridged."  He  spoke 
with  an  assumption  of  business  importance  that  was 
inexpressibly  irritating  to  the  sorely  galled  temper  of 
the  editor-in-chief. 

Then  the  storm  broke. 

"  We!"  repeated  Bobby,  in  a  white  rage.  "How 
dare  you  name  yourself  in  the  same  breath  with  me ! 
You  know  why  I  don't  ask  Lucy.  Do  you  think  it 's 
pleasant  to  be  made  a  laughing-stock  of  in  this  fashion  ? 
I  've  put  up  with  this  sort  of  thing  beyond  all  bounds  of 
decency  and  self-respect." 

"  You  have,  have  you  ?  "  shouted  Taffy,  in  an  equal 
rage.  "  You  'd  better  look  to  home !  I  don't  know  that 
the  Snark  has  any  reason  to  be  prouder  of  its  chief  than 
of  its  assistant  editors.  It 's  a  blooming  sight  better  to 
borrow  a  little  money  on  —  on  good  security"  —  even 
Taffy's  assurance  faltered  —  "  than  to  be  always  spong 
ing  on  another  fellow,  and  never  paying  your  share  of 
treats  I  Oh,  you're  a  puller,  all  right  I" 


THE  CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL  145 

The  last  words  had  hardly  left  Taffy's  lips  before 
Bobby's  fist  shot  out  and  the  business  editor  was 
sprawling  on  the  ground.  The  succeeding  interview 
with  Lucy  resulted  in  a  pitched  battle,  and  Bobby 
was  left  sole  editor  and  manager  of  the  bankrupt 
Snark. 

No  one  ventured,  in  his  hearing,  to  allude  directly  to 
the  leading  article  in  that  month's  issue,  but  for  many 
days  Bobby  had  to  endure  admiring  glances  at  his  hair, 
or  to  witness  a  clasp  of  the  hands,  accompanied  by  a 
violent  swaying  to  and  fro,  that  may  have  been  intended 
to  represent  the  throes  of  love,  but  which  the  fellows 
assured  him  merely  meant  that  they  were  cold.  Once, 
to  be  sure,  as  he  threw  off  his  cap  after  recess  and  an 
unusually  lively  snowball  scrimmage,  Larry  Lyman  was 
heard  to  murmur  something  that  sounded  like  "damp 
and  clust'ring  ringlets ; "  but  Larry  explained  that  he 
was  merely  trying  to  suppress  a  sneeze. 

To  the  unbounded  amazement  of  his  sisters,  Bobby 
suddenly  developed  a  mania  for  early  rising  that  might 
have  called  forth  the  encomiums  of  "Poor  Richard" 
himself, — Bobby,  from  whose  healthy  slumbers  it  had 
hitherto  required  the  united  efforts  of  the  family  to 
arouse.  Vouchsafing  no  explanation,  he  appeared  every 
morning  at  the  breakfast-table  with  a  rush  of  frosty  air 
and  the  appetite  of  a  young  Hercules.  At  any  other 
time  this  unusual  behavior  would  have  aroused  com 
ment  and  question,  —  the  home  circle  always  resenting 
anything  that  looked  like  an  effort  on  the  part  of  any  of 

10 


146  THE   CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL 

its  members  to  conceal  its  private  affairs,  —  but  just  now 
the  others  were  too  much  absorbed  in  guarding  their 
own  secrets  to  pay  heed  to  those  of  another. 

How  he  was  to  meet  the  obligations  that  seemed 
piling  up  on  every  side  was  a  question  that  appeared 
to  Bobby  to  admit  of  no  solution.  He  sold  his 
skates  to  buy  coal  for  the  Emporium's  depleted  bin, 
but  that  sum  represented  but  a  small  part  of  his  obli 
gations.  The  awful  figures  on  Griff's  ledger  were 
constantly  before  his  eyes ;  the  insulting  epithet  flung 
at  him  by  Taffy  rang  incessantly  hi  his  ears.  "  Black 
guard,"  to  a  man,  was  a  word  that  could  convey  no  more 
degrading  sense  than  to  the  boy  did  "  puller."  A  partial 
settlement  of  Peterson's  bill  must  be  made  within  the 
week.  But,  worst  of  all,  was  the  apparent  certainty 
that  the  Snark  must  be  given  up.  What  would  Judge 
Luce,  Dr.  Burnham,  Mr.  Dabney,  and  the  other  "  old 
boys  "  say,  when  they  heard  that  the  journal  in  which 
they  had  retained  almost  the  interest  of  their  boyhood 
had  been  run  into  the  ground  by  the  incapacity,  perhaps 
the  dishonesty,  of  its  present  editor?  For  the  school 
paper  to  die  a  natural  death  would  have  been  a  severe 
blow  to  the  self-esteem  of  the  editor-in-chief,  but  that  it 
should  actually  "  fail,"  that  the  memory  of  that  last 
issue  should  live  in  Holbrook  annals  forever  unre- 
trieved,  was  a  catastrophe  that  Bobby  felt  would 
darken  his  entire  future.  He  mentally  writhed  as  he 
thought  of  the  columns  of  rhetoric  with  which  its  fail 
ure  would  be  commented  on  by  the  various  school 


THE  CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL  147 

exchanges,  and  pictured  the  editorial  with  which  the 
Up-to-Date  would  gloat  over  its  rival's  downfall  I 

The  various  expedients  that  occurred  to  him  were 
only  to  be  successively  rejected.  To  enlist  in  the 
army  or  navy,  to  go  out  to  Dick's  ranch,  were  pro 
jects  that  had  their  special  allurements;  even  more 
enticing  was  the  thought  of  the  "  Klondike."  What  a 
triumph  it  would  be,  after  a  twelvemonth  or  more  of 
exciting  toil,  with  a  few  adventures  with  grizzly  bears 
and  Indians  thrown  in,  to  return  to  Holbrook  the  hero 
of  the  hour,  pay  off  his  debts,  restore  the  old  house  and 
grounds  to  their  pristine  glories,  and  show  Taffy  and 
Lucy  and  —  Jack,  that  he  was  become  a  man,  while 
they  were  still  little  boys ! 

But  the  next  moment  he  turned  away  from  the 
attractive  picture. 

"I  must  stand  by  the  girls;  we've  vowed  a  vow, 
and  the  man  of  the  family  mustn't  be  the  one  to 
break  it ; "  and  though  not  for  the  world  would  Bobby 
have  betrayed  his  loyal  affection,  the  thought  was  fol 
lowed  by  another:  "They're  the  nicest  girls  I  know. 
Of  course  I  couldn't  care  for  Susie  Grossman,  after 
them!  They  never  need  to  be  told  that  the  bell  has 
struck  to  laugh." 

The  most  immediate  question  was  the  promised  pay 
ment  to  Peterson.  To  do  Bobby  justice,  the  thought  of 
"  backing  out "  of  his  agreement  to  the  printer  by  plead 
ing  the  unexpectedness  of  the  situation  never  entered 
his  mind.  It  was  not  now  alone  the  onerous  conditions 


148  THE  CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL 

of  the  loan  that  held  him  from  an  appeal  to  Lucy; 
sooner  than  give  any  one  cause  to  apply  to  him  again 
that  stinging  epithet  of  Taffy's,  he  felt  that  he  would 
have  starved.  Could  it  be  that  all  the  fellows  had 
been  dubbing  him  "  puller  "  ? 

To  be  sure,  he  might  state  the  situation  to  Judge 
Luce,  Mr.  Dabney,  and  others.  A  subscription,  headed 
by  a  few  such  influential  names,  would  soon  restore 
the  Snark  to  solvency;  Holbrook  was  always  respon 
sive  to  any  appeal  to  its  public  spirit.  Bobby  even 
went  so  far  as  to  draw  up  a  list  of  alumnse  whose  aid 
could  be  relied  upon ;  but  after  staring  thoughtfully  at 
the  honored  names  for  some  minutes,  he  tore  the  paper 
to  bits. 

"  They  're  not  the  fellows  to  cry  baby  to.  I  '11  go  it 
alone,"  he  said,  throwing  back  his  head. 

He  had  intended  not  to  appeal  to  Nan,  whose  com 
parative  affluence  had  won  her,  in  the  home  circle,  the 
appellation  of  "  Mrs.  Vanderbilt."  But  a  little  specious 
reasoning  readily  convinced  Bobby  that  his  sister  had 
doubtless  accumulated  by  this  time  a  considerable  sum 
in  the  common  cause,  of  which  she  could  easily  spare 
him  a  portion.  It  was  not  "  pulling "  to  borrow  of 
one's  sister.  Besides,  he  would  repay  the  amount  before 
the  arrival  of  the  "Visitor."  Struggling  as  Nan  was 
with  her  own  worries,  however,  for  the  first  time  her 
little  brother's  request  for  a  loan  was  met  by  a  sharp 
rejoinder.  But  before  Bobby  reached  the  door,  his  sister 
sprang  after  him. 


THE   CAPTAIN  OF   THE   SCHOOL  149 

"  I  did  n't  mean  it,  Bobby,  honor  bright !  "  she  cried, 
holding  out  the  shabby  little  leather  purse  that  held  her 
hoard.  "  There  is  n't  much  in  it,  but  you  're  welcome 
to  every  cent,  honest  true ! " 

"  I  don't  care  for  it,  thank  you !  "  Bobby  flung  back 
the  words  haughtily,  leaving  Nan  to  return  to  her  work 
with  a  heavy  burden  of  self-reproach  added  to  the 
weight  of  real  responsibility  and  imaginary  worries. 

That  others  should  give  and  Bobby  receive  was  part 
of  the  order  of  the  universe.  To  have  such  an  ar 
rangement  even  momentarily  suspended  was  a  condition 
to  which  Bobby  could  not  readily  adjust  himself.  From 
his  very  cradle  his  sisters  had  vied  with  one  another 
in  waiting  upon  him,  and  suffering  the  convenience  of 
the  household  to  serve  his  pleasure.  If  one  of  them 
chanced  to  cross  his  bonny  humor,  the  others  instantly 
combined  to  soothe  his  grievance.  Nan  had  worn  her 
shabby  coat  another  winter  that  her  little  brother  might 
go  to  dancing-school,  and  Chris  willingly  had  gone  without 
sorely  needed  boots  and  gloves  herself  that  Bobby  might 
be  duly  provided  for  the  cotillion.  Lou  would  drop  her 
most  inspired  millinery  to  sew  up  a  rent  in  a  baseball 
or  darn  a  mitten,  and  had  stayed  at  home  to  toil  on  the 
sail  for  the  new  ice-boat,  though  she  was  longing  to 
enjoy  the  first  fine  skating  of  the  whiter.  Betty  trotted 
uncomplainingly  up  and  down  stairs  all  day,  on  trivial 
errands  of  "  his  lordship,"  and  relinquished  her  claim  to 
another  helping  of  pudding  if  Bobby  expressed  a  wish 
for  a  third  plateful.  Even  the  substantial  favors  with 


150  THE   CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL 

which  Lucy  showered  him  were  never  regarded  as 
obligations.  They  were  received  in  the  spirit  with 
which  a  feudal  baron  might  have  taken  the  tribute  of  a 
vassal,  or  Daniel  Webster  accepted  the  presents  of  his 
adoring  constituency  of  State  Street  bankers. 

It  was  not  till  Friday  that  an  expedient  occurred  to 
Bobby  that  would  enable  him  to  meet  at  least  part 
of  his  obligation  to  Peterson.  At  recess,  a  notice  ap 
peared  on  the  school  bulletin  board  to  the  effect  that 
on  the  following  afternoon  an  auction  would  be  held 
in  the  barn  on  the  premises  of  R.  Dudley.  These  ven- 
dues  were  popular  among  the  boys,  although  the 
articles  put  up  for  sale  were  usually  so  damaged  or 
out  of  date  as  to  call  forth  the  derision  of  the  bidders. 
Refreshments,  consisting  of  crackers  and  cheese,  with 
the  accompaniment  of  sweet  cider  or  ginger  beer,  aided 
to  make  the  occasion  festive. 

At  three  o'clock  the  next  day  a  knot  of  small  boys 
stood  before  "  R.  Dudley's  "  barn  door,  inspecting  with 
surprise  the  list  of  articles  to  be  disposed  of  "  regard 
less  of  sacrifice." 

1.  One   bicycle.     Best  make,  last  year's  model,  fine 
Russia  saddle,  bell,  cyclometer,  and  lantern  attached. 

2.  One  half  share  of  ice-boat. 

3.  Stationary  naphtha  engine. 

4.  Tennis  racket  and  golf  clubs. 

5.  Four  Belgian  hares. 

6.  Nine  hens  and  a  rooster,  pure   Plymouth  Rock 
breed. 


THE   CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL  151 

7.   Miscellaneous  lot. 

The  last  item  consisted  chiefly  of  a  collection  of 
minerals,  ditto  of  beetles,  ditto  of  butterflies,  a  micro 
scope,  a  galvanic  battery,  a  Kodak,  and  all  the  books 
on  the  little  bookshelf  —  save  one.  The  thought  of 
parting  with  various  treasured  articles  had  given  Bobby 
a  pang;  but  the  hope  of  securing  even  a  temporary 
relief  from  his  difficulties  afforded  too  much  relief  for 
regret  to  find  more  than  fleeting  lodgment. 

At  the  end  of  an  hour  the  number  of  prospective 
bidders  had  not  increased;  with  a  premonitory  sinking 
of  the  heart  it  dawned  upon  Bobby  that  the  notice  of 
the  auction  had  been  posted  too  late  for  its  proper  dis 
semination  among  the  boys.  In  the  ball  season  a 
close  watch  was  always  kept  upon  the  bulletin  board, 
but  at  present  the  chief  notices  were  of  articles  lost  or 
found,  or  an  occasional  sale  of  old  text-books.  Yes 
terday  the  boys  had  rushed  off  with  hardly  a  glance 
at  the  board,  that  they  might  lose  no  moment  of  the 
precious  skating.  On  former  occasions,  too,  Bobby's 
special  friends  would  have  circulated  the  news,  but 
unhappily  haughty  silence  now  prevailed  between  him 
and  Jack,  Lucy  and  Taffy. 

At  last  the  auctioneer  mounted  the  old  meal-chest 
that  did  duty  as  a  rostrum. 

"You  see,  gentlemen,"  began  Bobby,  with  a  brave 
attempt  at  pleasantry,  "a  wheel  that  can  easily  make 
a  century  run  —  within  a  century.  Warranted  not  to 
pitch  its  owner  into  a  ditch,  or  to  collide  with  another 


152  THE   CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL 

wheel  as  long  as  it  is  left  in  the  barn.  I  assure  you, 
gentlemen,  there  is  no  danger  of  this  bicycle  bolting 
uphill  with  its  owner,  or  coasting  anywhere  but  down 
hill.  What  is  offered  on  this  unusual  wheel?  Five 
dollars,  do  I  hear  ?  What !  only  five  dollars  on  a  bicycle 
that  cost  a  hundred — do  you  understand,  gentlemen,  a 
wheel  that — cost  —  a — hundred!  Do  I  hear  another 
offer  ?  "  But  the  auctioneer's  inquiring  glance  was  met 
only  by  blank  faces.  "  Going  —  going  —  gone,  to  Larry 
Lyman  for  five  dollars  1 " 

The  naphtha  engine  was  sold  at  a  corresponding  dis 
count,  and  the  half  share  in  the  ice-boat — which  had 
been  the  envy  of  every  boy  in  Holbrook  —  went  for  a 
trifling  sum  to  Cutty,  in  whose  hands  it  proved  subse 
quently  a  white  elephant ;  for  the  home  authorities  for 
bade  his  using  it  in  company  with  "  that  reckless  Harry 
Luce,"  after  that  ingenuous  youth  with  false  cordiality 
had  invited  his  new  partner  to  a  trip  up  the  river,  on 
which  the  ice-boat  attained  the  speed  of  the  Empire 
State  Express.  There  was  no  bidding  on  the  racket  or 
golf  clubs,  —  purchases  out  of  season  being  rare  among 
the  boys.  Only  a  few  insignificant  items  of  the  miscel 
laneous  lot  were  sold.  The  characters  of  the  hens  were 
too  well  known  to  find  purchasers,  and  the  hares  had 
mysteriously  disappeared. 

Bobby's  evidently  engrossing  business  at  the  barn  had 
aroused  Betty's  curiosity,  and  tiptoeing  thither,  she 
learnt  what  was  about  to  take  place.  Without  delay 
she  bundled  the  hares  into  her  skirt,  and  scuttled  back  to 


THE   CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL  153 

the  house  as  fast  as  her  fat  little  legs  would  carry  her. 
Betaking  herself  to  the  attic,  she  crouched  beneath 
the  eaves,  where  she  remained  dinnerless  throughout 
the  afternoon,  her  tears  falling  on  the  soft,  furry  heap  in 
her  lap,  while  she  whispered,  with  much  of  the  feeling 
that  a  tender-hearted  abolitionist  might  have  experienced 
in  the  days  of  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law,  — 

"  'Sh,  darlings,  don't  cry  I  I  won't  let  them  have  you. 
They  sha'n't  sell  you.  Betty  '11  take  care  of  you  1 " 

After  a  brief  consultation  without,  Larry  Lyman  and 
Cutty  re-entered  the  barn. 

"  See  here,  Bobby,"  said  the  former,  in  a  shamefaced 
way,  "  we  don't  want  these  things.  I  'm  speaking  for 
the  lot  of  us.  I  offered  five  dollars  on  the  wheel  just 
to  start  the  bidding.  I  had  no  idea  it  would  be  knocked 
down  to  me." 

"  Say,  I  don't  want  the  ice-boat,  either  1 "  piped  Cutty. 

But  Bobby  put  his  hands  behind  him. 

"  The  auction  was  on  the  square,"  said  he.  "  If  you 
don't  want  the  things,  you  can  leave  'em.  But  I  sha'n't 
use  them  again." 

And  with  that  reply  the  boys  were  forced  to  be 
content. 

By  "  sprinting,"  Bobby  reached  the  printer's  shop  just 
as  Peterson  was  putting  up  the  shutters,  and  thrust  the 
money  into  his  hands. 

"Thank  you,  Bobby,"  said  the  man,  gratefully;  "I 
knew  you  were  all  right." 

That  night   Bobby  actually  heard  the  clock  strike 


154  THE   CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL 

twice.  He  had  merely  deferred  the  day  of  reck 
oning.  The  sum  paid  the  printer  was  but  a  fraction 
of  the  amount  due  him,  and  the  figures  on  Griff's  ledger 
seemed  to  dance  in  letters  of  fire  on  the  darkness. 

Suddenly  he  sat  bolt  upright,  with  a  whoop  that 
caused  a  frantic  wagging  of  the  tongueless  bell  at  his 
bedside.  An  idea  had  occurred  to  him  that  was  at  once 
so  simple,  so  practical,  requiring  no  capital  and  involv 
ing  no  risk,  that  he  could  only  wonder  that  he  had  not 
thought  of  it  before. 

"  Who  's  there  ? "  demanded  a  terrified  but  sleepy 
voice  from  below. 

"Do  you  think  the  burglar  is  going  to  send  up  his 
card  ?  "  called  back  Bobby,  jeeringly. 


THE   CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL  155 


CHAPTER   FIFTEEN 

ARRY  one  —  twenty  —  twenty-seven,"  Nan  added 
breathlessly  the  long  columns,  —  a  kind  of  men 
tal  arithmetic  that  was  with  her  like  running  down  hill. 
She  must  keep  pace  with  the  accelerated  momentum, 
or  she  would  lose  her  footing  and  go  headlong.  "  Who 
would  think  that  all  those  horrid  little  items  could  count 
to  such  a  frightful  sum  ?  "  She  gazed  with  rueful  anti 
cipation  at  the  ominous  pile  of  paper  slips  near  by. 
"However,  I  may  as  well  know  the  worst.  Bobby's 
dentist  bill,  Betty's  boot  bill  —  if  she  were  a  centipede, 
it  could  n't  cost  more  to  keep  her  shod.  Cleaning  range, 
new  wash-tub,  having  clock  repaired  because  Bobby 
tried  to  wind  it  up  by  electricity  —  oh  dear,  how  much  it 
does  cost  to  live,  and  how  little  the  game  is  worth  the 
candle  1 "  Nan's  hand  went  involuntarily  to  her  fore 
head,  as  though  by  smoothing  out  the  wrinkles  she 
could  thereby  remove  their  cause.  Presently,  with  a  long 
breath,  she  resumed  her  calculations. 

"  If  I  took  some  of  the  money  I  've  saved  toward  the 
interest  on  the  mortgage  —  but  no,  if  I  did  that  there 
would  be  compound  interest  to  worry  about,  and  I  can't 
carry  any  further  weight  there.  The  butcher's  account 
must  n't  wait,  either,  and  I  ought  to  pay  something  on 
the  coal  bill  —  I  sha'n't  be  able  to  settle  the  whole 


156  THE  CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL 

amount  this  month.  Oh,  why  can't  I  do  as  Lou  does, 
and  not  worry,  even  if  I  do  seem  to  be  swallowed  up 
in  debt?  Besides,  what's  the  use  of  trying  to  keep 
things  straight  when  everybody  is  pulling  the  other 
way  ?  "  —  "  everybody  "  in  this  instance  meaning  Chris. 

Nan  pushed  the  pile  of  papers  from  her  and  went 
to  the  window.  The  sky,  an  expanse  of  unbroken  gray, 
seemed  to  press  upon  the  earth ;  an  early  thaw  had  left 
puddles  here  and  there  upon  the  sodden  ground;  the 
remains  of  an  occasional  snow-drift  were  grimy  with 
the  settled  impurities  of  the  atmosphere.  There  was 
no  more  comfort  to  be  found  without,  above  or  below, 
than  within ;  but  the  girl  remained  at  the  window,  lost  in 
a  kind  of  leaden  dream. 

Why  give  herself  away  for  nothing?  Why  not  be 
cannily  wise,  like  the  witch  Betty  was  chattering  about 
the  other  day,  and  take  heed  that  expenditure  never  out 
stripped  self-interest  ?  She  was  of  too  brave  and  of  too 
resolute  a  temper  to  think  seriously  of  trying  to  shift  to 
another  the  burden  that  at  times  seemed  too  heavy  for  her 
young  shoulders ;  but  look  which  way  she  would,  there 
was  only  an  endless  vista  of  cooking  and  dish  -washing 
and  worry.  If  there  were  only  some  one  who  cared,  some 
one  who  understood  that  behind  the  fretted  brow,  the 
impatience  of  suggestion,  the  intolerance  of  criticism, 
lay  the  thought  for  others  that  was  often  their  very 
cause.  As  she  stood  pressing  her  aching  forehead 
against  the  icy  pane,  the  sorrow  and  bitter  questioning 
of  years  ago  welled  up  within  her  heart,  mingling  with 


THE   CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL  157 

the  every-day  worries,  the  thwarted  ambition,  and  the 
chafing  against  a  contrary  nature,  till  the  girl  hardly 
knew  what  caused  the  tumult  of  angry  baffled  feeling,  or 
those  pangs  of  intense  loneliness  that  came  and  went 
like  flashes  of  inspiration  defying  analysis. 

There  was  a  knock  at  the  door,  and  Chris  entered. 

"Here  is  the  January  money,"  she  said  abruptly, 
placing  a  roll  of  bills  on  the  desk. 

The  checks  that  represented  the  family  income  were 
made  out  to  the  eldest  girl,  whose  responsibility  ended 
with  their  endorsement. 

"Why,  did  you  go  to  the  bank?"  queried  Nan,  in 
surprise.  "I  did  not  know  the  check  had  come." 

"It  came  yesterday,"  answered  her  sister,  her  voice 
trembling  with  some  suppressed  excitement.  "  You  will 
find  the  amount  somewhat  short,  this  quarter,"  she 
added  in  a  tone  of  would-be  indifference. 

"What  has  happened  —  what  do  you  mean?"  cried 
Nan,  breathlessly.  "The  bank  failed  —  somebody  em 
bezzled —  tariff?"  she  stammered.  Then,  a  vague  sus 
picion  entering  her  mind  as  she  caught  sight  of  the 
expression,  at  once  defiant  and  self-exculpatory,  tri 
umphant  and  ashamed,  on  her  sister's  face,  she  cried, 
"What  have  you  done,  Chris  Dudley?" 

"I  needed  a  new  gown,"  answered  Chris,  trying  to 
speak  easily ;  but  her  tone  outstripped  her  intention  and 
was  fairly  aggressive.  "  It  was  all  very  well  when  I  was 
a  child  to  dress  simply  and  inexpensively,  but  now  that 
I  am  *  out '  my  wardrobe  must  be  considered  a  necessary 


158      THE  CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL 

part  of  the  family  expenditure.  I  have  been  very 
economical,  however,  and  may  not  require  anything 
more  immediately,"  she  added  superbly. 

Nan  snatched  up  the  roll  of  bills  and  counted  its  con 
tents  again,  —  taking  painstaking  care  that  no  two  bills 
adhered.  She  whispered  the  sum  —  it  marked  an  awful 
deficit  —  to  herself,  her  mind  reverting  to  the  bills 
over  which  she  had  been  poring.  The  blood  seemed 
to  have  settled  in  her  veins,  and  a  curious  dumbness  held 
her  speech  as  she  turned  a  white,  appealing  face  to 
her  sister. 

"  What  are  you  glaring  at  me  in  that  stony,  purblind 
way  for?"  snapped  Chris. 

"A  cat  may  look  at  a  king,"  responded  Nan  slowly, 
perhaps  too  dumfounded  to  formulate  original  speech. 

"You  are  looking  at  me  more  as  a  cat  looks  at  a 
mouse,"  retorted  the  other  girl.  "  I  am  the  eldest,  and 
have  a  perfect  right  to  do  as  I  please  with  the  money," 
she  added,  her  tones  growing  sharper,  as  she  realized 
that  in  spite  of  herself  she  was  assuming  an  apologetic 
attitude. 

"  Yes,  yes,"  whispered  Nan,  hoarsely,  hardly  conscious 
of  what  she  was  saying. 

"If  you  were  capable  of  managing  the  house  as  it 
should  be  done,  there  would  be  no  need  of  this  everlasting 
talk  about  economy,"  went  on  Chris,  goaded  by  that 
uncalled-for  need  of  defending  her  action  to  yet  sharper 
speech.  "  The  trouble  is  you  're  always  jealous  if  you  're 
not  number  one,  and  you  don't  like  to  see  me  having 


THE  CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL  159 

a  good  time.  You  ought  to  strain  every  nerve  to  get  me 
a  suitable  wardrobe  for  my  first  season." 

Nan  put  her  hand  involuntarily  to  her  brow,  as  though 
there  were  some  danger  of  the  overstrained  nerves  snap 
ping  asunder.  There  was  just  the  tiny  grain  of  truth  in 
Chris's  last  words  that  stung  her  to  speech.  In  a  sudden 
tempest  of  fury  she  turned  upon  her  sister. 

"  If  you  want  to  know  what  I  think  of  you,  I  '11  tell 
you,"  she  cried.  "  You  've  done  the  most  abominable 
thing  I  ever  heard  of  I  You  've  no  more  right  to  that 
money,  when  we're  owing  all  that,"  with  a  compre 
hensive  sweep  of  her  arm  over  the  paper-strewn 
desk,  "than  though  you'd  picked  Miss  Courtenay's 
pocket.  You  're  a  thief,  that 's  what  you  are,  Chris 
Dudley!" 

Chris,  for  once  silenced,  not  less  by  her  sister's  words 
than  by  the  expression  in  Nan's  honest  eyes,  slammed 
the  door  behind  her.  She  proceeded  to  nurse  her  out 
raged  feelings  in  the  privacy  of  her  own  room,  and  to 
such  good  purpose  that  when  Bobby  queried,  at  dinner, 
"  Where 's  Nan  ?  "  she  was  ready  with  the  answer,  given 
in  good  faith,  — 

"  Sulking  in  her  room." 

"  What 's  up  ?  "  queried  Bobby. 

"  General  unpleasantness,  that 's  all.  It 's  bad  enough 
to  be  poor,  —  it  is  for  us  all,"  said  Chris,  in  a  large- 
hearted  way,  — "  but  I  don't  see  the  use  of  making  the 
entire  family  miserable,  in  addition,  because  we  can't 
have  all  the  things  we  'd  like,"  she  concluded,  with  the 


160      THE  CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL 

air  of  one  setting  a  worthy  example  in  the  matter  of 
bearing  one's  burdens  cheerfully. 

"  We  won't  mind,  will  we,  Chrissy,  if  Nan  is  cross  ?  " 
said  Betty,  trying,  as  usual,  to  comfort  her  eldest  sister. 
"  We  '11  have  plum-pudding  every  day  and  give  all  the 
rice  to  the  hens  I " 

"  If  I  catch  you  feeding  them  again,  it  '11  be  the  worse 
for  you,"  said  Bobby,  with  an  unusual  display  of  temper ; 
for  an  autopsy,  revealing  crops  filled  with  dry  rice,  had 
too  readily  explained  the  cause  of  the  recent  mysterious 
deaths  of  Priscilk  and  Mrs.  Peregrine  White. 

"  I  dare  say  Nan  does  mean  to  try  hard  to  manage,  and 
you  must  not  ask  for  too  many  things,  Betty,"  said 
Chris.  "  But  I  am  the  head  of  the  table,  and  Nan  takes 
too  much  upon  herself  when  she  thinks  that  hers  is  the 
only  voice  in  family  matters."  To  which  Bobby  and 
Lou,  knowing  nothing  of  the  real  cause  of  the  disagree 
ment  and  accustomed  to  Nan's  usual  disposition  over 
the  monthly  accounts,  gave  easy  assent. 

A  few  days  before  this  episode,  Chris  had  said  tenta 
tively,  — 

"  Do  you  think  there  will  be  any  money  left  over, 
next  month?"  and  Nan  had  answered  with  a  hateful 
laugh,  — 

"  A  few  loose  thousands  I  I  was  wondering  whether 
I  would  better  invest  them  in  '  Calumet  and  Hecla '  or 
'  Union  and  Pacific '  bonds." 

Chris,  who  had  had  some  vague  idea  of  telling  her 
sister  the  situation,  held  back  the  words.  Nan  always 


THE  CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL  161 

laughed  at  her  social  aspirations.  Then  came  the 
thought  that  the  money  for  the  coveted  gown  lay  within 
her  reach.  The  idea  of  appropriating  the  sum  from  the 
household  funds,  at  first  repulsed,  returned  again  and 
again,  and  by  and  by  found  harborage.  When  the 
check  came,  her  plans  were  made. 

Saying  nothing  to  the  others,  she  took  the  early  train 
to  the  city.  The  bank  was  first  visited.  She  had  never 
cashed  a  check  before,  and  as  the  cashier  pushed  the 
money  across  the  counter,  an  intoxicating  sense  of 
wealth  and  power  came  over  her.  She  looked  at  the 
throng  on  the  busy  street  with  a  pleasant  sense  of  being 
lifted  high  above  the  necessities  that  were  driving  these 
people  to  their  daily  toil.  Instead  of  going  to  the 
department  store  where  she  had  intended  making  her 
purchases,  she  turned  her  steps  toward  the  more  exclu 
sive  shop  patronized  by  Miss  Courtenay.  When  the 
clerk,  recognizing  the  young  lady  who  had  accompanied 
one  of  his  best  customers,  took  out  for  her  inspection 
a  choice  fabric,  "the  latest  style  and  our  own  importa 
tion,  madam,"  Chris,  after  examining  the  texture  and 
looking  at  the  shimmering  folds,  came  to  a  swift  de 
cision.  She  could  see  that  even  the  accustomed  clerk 
looked  respectfully  at  the  roll  of  bills  from  which  she 
took  one  —  with  three  figures  on  it.  The  die  was 
cast.  There  was  no  trace  of  hesitation  in  her  mind, 
no  comparison  of  qualities  or  prices,  in  her  subsequent 
purchases. 

A  shabbily  dressed  little  girl,  probably  a  dressmaker's 

11 


162  THE   CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL 

apprentice,  was  at  the  ribbon  counter,  as  Chris  ap 
proached.  She  was  evidently  overburdened  with  the 
responsibility  of  her  errand,  and  possibly  nervous  with 
the  sense  of  passing  time.  As  she  looked  hesitatingly 
at  a  roll  of  ribbon  of  a  glaringly  dissonant  shade  from 
the  pattern  she  was  trying  to  match,  she  found  herself 
suddenly  thrust  aside;  not  with  aggressive  rudeness, 
but  with  the  calm  assertion  of  accustomed  wealth  and 
fashion.  The  clerk,  his  attention  distracted  by  the 
clear,  decided  tones  of  the  new-comer,  mistook  the 
flurried  gesture  of  the  little  errand-girl  for  assent,  and 
asked  sharply, — 

"  How  much  —  ten  yards  ?  " 

The  child  gave  faltering  assent,  and  received  her 
parcel  with  brimming  eyes,  —  perhaps  with  the  con 
sciousness  that  her  blunder  had  cost  her  a  week's 
wages.  At  the  lace  department  Chris  also  bought 
largely.  On  her  return  home  she  spent  a  happy  hour 
in  looking  over  her  purchases  and  studying  the  pages 
of  the  latest  fashion  magazines. 

In  the  days  that  followed,  intoxicated  by  the  realiza 
tion  of  her  fondest  dreams,  "Chris's  eyes  were  held. 
Nan,  always  in  extremes,  not  only  refused  to  hold  any 
communication  with  her  sister,  but  allowed  her  resent 
ment  to  overflow  toward  the  rest  of  the  family.  Find 
ing  that  Chris's  representation  of  their  quarrel  was 
accepted  by  the  others  without  question,  mingled  pride 
and  an  indignant  sense  of  injustice  stung  her  to  silence 
in  her  own  defence.  While  sternly  attentive  to  duty,  in 


THE   CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL  163 

the  time  not  occupied  by  household  labors  she  shut  her 
self  up  in  her  studio,  and  by  dint  of  assiduous  attention 
kept  her  wrath  at  boiling  point. 

Hitherto  the  quarrels  between  the  two  elder  girls  had 
always  ended,  insensibly,  in  the  reassertion  of  sisterly 
affection;  or  some  trivial  circumstance  had  aroused 
mutual  interest  or  laughter,  and  the  cloud  had  forthwith 
vanished.  But  never  before  had  the  cause  of  the  differ 
ence  been  so  serious,  or  the  subsequent  ill  feeling  so 
deep  and  bitter.  Under  its  spell  the  merry  fellowship 
of  the  table  vanished,  Chris  turned  more  and  more  for 
satisfaction  to  the  great  house  over  the  way,  while  Nan, 
seeing  her  sister's  unalloyed  enjoyment  of  the  fruits 
of  unrighteousness,  resolved  that  neither  time  nor  cir 
cumstance  should  ever  induce  her  to  forgive. 

Chris  set  off  for  the  first "  At  Home  "  in  radiant  spirits. 
The  pleasing  knowledge  that  the  new  gown  was  a 
success,  together  with  the  excitement  of  the  occasion, 
gave  a  flush  to  her  cheeks  and  a  sparkle  to  her  eyes, 
so  that  when  Lou  said  in  tones  of  pleased  astonishment, 
"Why,  you  look  actually  pretty  I"  Chris  had  not  felt 
it  necessary  to  contradict. 

The  following  morning  she  was  eagerly  ready  to  render 
the  expected  account  of  her  good  time;  at  the  first 
allusion  Nan  somewhat  ostentatiously  left  the  table. 

"I  never  knew  any  one  so  perfectly  lovely  as  Miss 
Meg,"  Chris  began.  "  I  thought  her  lovely  before  —  " 

"We  have  heard  you  mention  your  opinion  once  or 
twice  on  that  topic,"  suggested  Bobby ;  but  his  sister 


164  THE   CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL 

went  on,  as  one  hardened  to  interruptions  of  a  flippant 
nature, — 

"But  if  you  could  have  seen  her  as  hostess!  She 
made  each  feel  that  she  was  really  pleased  to  see 
him,  and  was  interested  in  what  he  was  saying.  Shy 
and  awkward  people  forgot  themselves  with  her,  and 
blossomed  into  something  like  grace  and  brilliancy. 
She  is  n't  so  handsome  as  Miss  Herbert,  nor  so  brilliantly 
educated  as  Mrs.  Carr,  nor  so  intellectual  as  Miss 
Benton,  whose  book  is  the  hit  of  the  season.  But  there 
is  something  about  her  —  I  don't  know  what  —  that 
none  of  them  have.  Her  fascination  "  —  Chris  repeated 
the  magic  word  wistfully  —  "is  something  individual, 
unattainable,  — what  Mr.  Blake  would  call  *  occult.' " 

"What's  that?"  queried  Lou,  whose  language,  like 
her  feelings,  never  quitted  the  every  day  and  tangible. 

"  It  means  that  a  person  can  make  a  ghost  of  himself 
before  he 's  dead,  or  shin  up  a  rope  into  the  sky,  or  shut 
himself  in  a  bottle  for  a  thousand  years  and  come  out  as 
good  as  new,"  explained  Bobby,  whose  information  on 
esoteric  themes  was  drawn  from  the  lively  tales  of 
Messieurs  Crawford  and  Stevenson. 

"Oh,  did  they  do  all  that  at  the  party?"  questioned 
Betty,  who  had  been  an  entranced  listener  to  Chris's 
narration. 

"They  didn't  last  night,  Betty,  or  I'd  have  taken  you 
to  see  the  performance,"  answered  her  sister,  laughing. 
"Mr.  Blake  came  at  once  to  my  table,  and  in  a  fit  of 
theosophic  abstraction  threatened  to  splash  his  tea  over 


THE   CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL  165 

my  gown.  Afterwards  Miss  Benton  —  she  and  Mr. 
Blake  are  great  friends,  although  they  always  seem  to  be 
quarrelling  —  explained  that  every  season  he  adopted 
a  new  religion.  She  says  he  cuts  his  hair  to  match  his 
spiritual  views ;  it  appears  there  is  an  esoteric  connection 
between  theosophy  and  a  Vandyke ;  last  season,  when 
he  was  an  ultra-ritualist,  his  face  was  smooth-shaven, 
and  the  year  before  — he  was  then  a  disciple  of  Tolstoi  — 
he  wore  a  full  beard.  He  was  evidently  imparting  some 
of  his  theosophical  views  to  Miss  Herbert,  for  she 
looked  as  though  she  expected  momentarily  to  see  him 
go  off  in  a  blue  light." 

"  Did  everybody  inquire  for  me  ?  "  asked  Betty.  "  You 
seem  to  disremember  a  very  important  part  of  the  party," 
she  frowned. 

"  Miss  Meg  asked  very  particularly  for  you,"  answered 
Chris,  too  happy  to  answer  sharply.  "She  sent  you 
some  little  cakes;  they're  on  my  table." 

Betty  clattered  joyfully  over  the  stairs,  and  Chris 
resumed,  — 

"Mrs.  Courtenay  was  asking  everybody  what  King 
of  Israel  had  six  letters  to  his  name.  As  I  have  hitherto 
associated  Scripture  royalty  less  with  the  letters  than 
with  the  wives  they  had  to  their  honored  names,  I  dis 
tinguished  myself  by  suggesting  Solomon.  By  and  by 
she  retreated  to  a  corner,  where  she  fondled  Wee  Willie 
with  such  an  agonized  expression  of  affection  and  solici 
tude,  with  distrustful  glances  toward  Mr.  Blake,  that 
I  ventured  to  inquire  if  Willie  Winkie  were  ill.  As 


166      THE  CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL 

he  had  just  devoured  a  plateful  of  ice-cream,  the  question 
did  not  seem  out  of  order.  But  Mrs.  Courtenay  looked 
at  me  reproachfully. 

" '  My  dear,'  said  she,  in  a  whisper  that  could  be  heard 
all  over  the  room,  'Wee  Willie  is  so  intelligent.  He 
always  barks  at  people  he  doesn't  like.  Didn't  you 
notice  when  Mr.  Blake  spoke  to  me  just  now,  how  Willie 
Winkie  barked?  I  've  been  told  that  that  young  man  is 
a  theosophist, — one  of  those  dreadful  people  out  in 
India,  you  know,  to  whom  we  send  missionaries  to  teach 
them  it's  quite  wrong  to  choke  people  to  death  with 
a  cord.  I  could  see  by  the  way  Mr.  Blake  looked  at 
poor  dear  Willie,  that  he  would  like  to  choke  him  to 
death.'  I'm  afraid,"  laughed  Chris,  "that  in  that  re 
spect  we  were  all  Thugs — as  Mrs.  Courtenay  presum 
ably  meant  —  at  heart.  For  the  remainder  of  the 
evening  Mr.  Blake  hovered  about  the  old  lady  with  a 
devotion  that  nearly  drove  her  distracted.  Mr.  Carr  was 
there  too,  wandering  about,  rubbing  his  hands  and  con 
versing  upon  his  usual  timely  topic  of  St.  Paul." 

"What  did  you  have  to  eat?"  asked  Betty  from  the 
doorway,  where  she  was  stuffing  the  little  cakes  into  her 
pocket  to  share  with  Evangeline. 

"  Oh,  the  usual  things,"  answered  Chris,  languidly. 
"Tea  and  chocolate,  orange  frappe",  cakes  and  salted 
almonds." 

"  Ho  1  do  you  call  that  a  party  ?  "  commented  Betty, 
scornfully.  "What's  a  party  without  ice-cream  and 
snappers  ?  " 


THE  CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL  167 


CHAPTER   SIXTEEN 

THE  ice  between  Nan  and  the  rest  of  the  family  — 
with  the  exception  of  Chris  —  was  broken  in  an 
unexpected  manner.  Bobby  had  expressed  a  modest 
wish  for  some  "  Hermit "  cakes,  which  Nan  curtly  refused 
to  gratify. 

"  Never  mind,  Robin,  I  will  make  them,"  proffered  Lou. 

Accordingly,  the  following  morning,  she  proceeded  to 
the  kitchen,  unearthed  an  old  cook-book,  and  set  about 
her  unwonted  task  with  prolonged  intervals  of  playing 
with  the  cat  and  chatting  with  Betty,  who,  kneeling  in 
a  chair  by  the  table,  was  patting  and  rolling  into  shape  a 
little  clay-colored  ball  of  dough. 

"I  wish  Nan  would  be  cross  all  the  time,"  she  com 
mented  gleefully.  "You  don't  mind  if  I  stuff  my 
pockets  with  raisins  and  cinnamon,  or  say  *  Run  away ' 
when  I  offer  to  help.  I  think  your  *  Hermits '  are 
lovely,  Lou.  Truly,  I  like  them  such  funny  shapes,  and 
I  don't  mind  a  bit  if  they're  all  burnt  up.  It  gives 
them  such  an  —  well,  original  flavor." 

"  Don't  tell  Nan  they  are  n't  good,"  said  Lou,  adding 
with  something  more  than  her  usual  hopefulness, 
"  Bobby  will  like  them ;  he  won't  mind  if  they  are 
kind  of  hard,"  — for  she  had  forgotten  the  baking-powder 
and  had  stirred  in  flour  as  long  as  her  strength  held  out. 


168  THE   CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL 

Betty  was  skipping  wildly  about  the  kitchen  as  Lou 
bore  the  platter  of  cakes  to  the  cupboard,  when  Nan, 
overtaken  by  speedy  remorse,  appeared  in  the  doorway. 
Lou  brought  up  with  a  shock  against  Betty,  with  the 
result  that  the  black  discs  were  sent  rolling  and  spinning 
in  every  direction.  Lou's  face  of  dismay  at  this  unex 
pected  betrayal  of  her  culinary  failure  appealed  irresis 
tibly  to  Nan's  sense  of  humor,  a  chorus  of  laughter 
cleared  the  air,  —  Betty,  as  usual,  in  convulsions  of 
merriment  over  an  accident, — and  the  three  girls  went 
down  on  their  hands  and  knees  to  collect  the  scattered 
cakes,  whose  composition  had  been  proof  against  the 
smallest  fracture.  That  night,  on  the  supper-table, 
"Hermits"  galore,  of  spicy  fragrance  and  symmetrical 
outlines,  testified  that  peace  had  been  proclaimed  within 
the  borders ;  and  later,  the  battle  notes  of  "  Horatius " 
sounded  forth,  as  Bobby  sought  the  studio  for  consulta 
tion  regarding  an  approaching  school  event  of  the  first 
magnitude. 

For  weeks  before  the  holidays  Nan  had  racked  her 
brain  for  new  and  telling  designs  for  Christmas  cards. 
The  dainty  pen  and  ink  work  tried  her  eyes  sorely,  and 
yet  more  sorely  her  patience,  for  a  single  false  stroke  of 
the  tiny  "  croquil "  meant  the  ruin  of  hours  of  pains 
taking  toil.  But  each  impulse  to  undue  haste  was 
restrained  by  the  thought  that  the  labor  was  for  Dick, 
and  abhorrence  of  the  work  that  was  "  robbing  her  of  all 
strength  and  breadth  "  was  put  resolutely  out  of  sight  in 
a  toil  of  which  the  inspiration  never  failed.  And  so 


THE   CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL  169 

grew  slowly  the  pile  of  cards,  and  Nan  had  awaited  the 
result  of  the  holiday  sales  in  blissful  security  that  they 
would  realize  a  goodly  sum.  In  due  tune  the  check 
arrived,  but  without  giving  its  recipient  the  expected 
joy.  The  money,  together  with  all  of  her  previous 
savings,  must  go  toward  making  good  the  gap  left  by 
Chris's  appropriation  of  the  household  funds.  That 
was  the  end  of  Nan's  hope  of  helping  to  make  the  old 
house  presentable ;  for  though  there  was  a  fairly  steady 
demand  for  dinner-cards  throughout  the  winter,  the 
amount  could  not  reach  an  appreciable  sum  in  the 
short  time  left  at  her  disposal.  Besides,  she  was  too 
disheartened  by  the  untoward  result  of  her  labors  to 
begin  again. 

Hitherto,  in  whatever  trials  had  beset  her,  or  however 
dark  her  hours  of  unreasoning  depression,  Nan  had  been 
upheld  by  the  hope  that  some  day  her  talent  would 
bring  her  name  and  fame.  But  now,  in  her  bitter  dis 
appointment,  the  weary  struggle  to  find  some  way  out  of 
the  worries  that  beset  her,  worst  of  all  in  the  tumult 
of  angry,  vengeful  feelings  toward  her  sister,  her  hand 
seemed  to  have  lost  its  cunning,  and  to-day's  work  was 
merely  to  destroy  the  labor  of  yesterday.  If  Chris  had 
any  conscience,  Nan  hoped  she  would  feel  its  pricks 
every  time  she  put  on  that  new  gown. 

But  just  then  Chris  would  have  been  impervious  to 
sword-thrusts  from  the  inward  monitor.  That  first  "  At 
Home  "  of  Miss  Courtenay's  was  followed  by  invitations 
to  other  teas,  receptions,  dances,  theatre  and  toboggan- 


170  THE   CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL 

ing  parties,  so  that  all  at  once  the  desire  of  her  soul 
was  gratified,  and  Chris  beheld  herself  a  full-fledged 
"  society  girl."  It  was  tacitly  understood  that  she  was 
to  accompany  Miss  Meg  to  all  these  functions,  so  that 
the  onerous  question  of  a  carriage  was  never  raised. 
Among  the  throng  of  new  acquaintances  were  many 
who  gave  her  cordial  greeting  as  the  daughter  of  their 
old  friends,  or  singled  her  out  for  special  notice  in  an 
invitation  to  some  exclusive  luncheon  or  small  whist 
party.  Several  tunes  a  tea  was  given  in  her  honor,  and 
more  than  once,  in  a  flutter  of  gratified  vanity,  she  heard 
herself  called  "one  of  the  most  attractive  buds  of  the 
season." 

Diffidence  was  too  foreign  to  the  girl's  nature  for  her 
to  betray  awkwardness  in  her  unaccustomed  r6le.  Be 
sides,  if  she  were  ever  at  a  loss  for  word  or  act,  she  had 
only  to  watch  Miss  Meg.  She  studied  the  very  tones  of 
her  friend's  voice,  her  manner  of  entering  a  room,  her 
phrases  of  welcome  and  farewell.  Yet,  strive  as  she 
would,  letter  perfect  though  she  seemed  to  be  at  times, 
there  was  a  lurking  dissatisfaction  within  herself  at  the 
clever  mimicry.  For  there  were  moments  when  an  in 
flection  of  Miss  Meg's  voice,  an  expression  in  her  glance, 
seemed  to  throw  the  girl  back  on  herself  and  make  her 
sedulous  seeking  of  her  friend's  charm  mean  and  pinch 
beck  and  servile. 

Mr.  Blake  was  present  at  most  of  the  social  gather 
ings  in  Holbrook  that  winter,  and  the  preference  he  had 
displayed  for  Chris's  society  at  their  first  meeting  grew 


THE  CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL  171 

more  marked.  Already  their  names  were  coupled  in 
the  general  speech.  If  one  was  asked  to  an  entertain 
ment,  it  was  regarded  almost  as  a  matter  of  course  that 
the  other  should  be  included  in  the  invitation.  With 
the  usual  temper  displayed  toward  actual  or  prospective 
lovers,  people  made  opportunities  for  leaving  them  to 
gether.  Mr.  Blake  was  always  so  happy  and  merry,  so 
quick  of  retort,  and  so  unfailingly  good-natured  when 
one  laughed  at  his  esoteric  fairy  tales,  that  at  first 
Chris  accepted  the  young  artist's  attentions  merely  as 
one  of  the  many  pleasant  things  that  had  recently  fallen 
to  her  lot.  But  as  time  went  on,  the  long-cherished 
vision  of  a  beautiful  house  and  herself  as  a  society 
leader  began  to  materialize  in  this  congenial  atmosphere. 
Mr.  Blake  was  undoubtedly  a  good  match.  He  had  a 
handsome  income,  independent  of  his  profession;  his 
last  picture  was  on  the  line  in  the  Salon,  and  though 
he  carried  his  impressionistic  theories  to  the  verge  of 
insanity,  even  conservative  critics  mentioned  his  name 
with  respect. 

By  degrees,  behind  the  merry  by-play,  a  serious  inten 
tion  grew,  and  every  night,  as  Chris  laid  aside  her  finery, 
a  mental  review  of  the  day's  pleasure  always  reckoned 
up  her  progress  to  the  final  goal  of  her  ambition,  —  a 
brilliant  match. 

She  was  quite  at  home,  now,  in  the  great  house  across 
the  way.  Miss  Meg  consulted  her  in  every  plan.  Mrs. 
Courtenay  displayed  all  her  latest  acquisitions  from  the 
"  bargain  counter,"  and  had  in  daily  store  a  new  Biblical 


172  THE  CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL 

conundrum.  Mr.  Courtenay  did  not  pay  much  attention 
to  his  daughter's  young  friend,  except  on  their  seldom 
meetings  to  regard  her  somewhat  scrutinizingly  from  be 
neath  his  bushy  brows.  Chris's  secret  awe  of  young  Mr. 
Courtenay  had  increased  rather  than  diminished  on  far 
ther  acquaintance,  while  with  unwonted  humility  she 
cherished  a  secret  conviction  that  she  was  being  con 
tinually  weighed  in  the  balance  against  Miss  Herbert 
and  found  deplorably  wanting.  In  her  heart  she 
greatly  preferred  Mr.  Blake's  society,  in  which  she 
always  felt  pleasantly  elated,  to  that  of  her  friend's 
brother;  but  in  the  presence  of  Miss  Herbert,  for  whom 
her  first  dislike  had  not  lessened,  an  uneasy  desire  to 
assert  herself  dominated.  It  was  at  such  times  that  she 
exerted  all  her  natural  and  acquired  powers  of  attraction 
to  hold  young  Mr.  Courtenay  by  her  side.  The  impas 
sive  look  on  his  betrothed's  face  deepened,  and  her 
heavy  white  eyelids  were  more  scornfully  lowered  when 
Chris  entertained  the  young  man  with  a  stream  of  merry 
small  talk,  in  the  art  of  which  Miss  Herbert  was  notably 
deficient. 

As  Chris  entered  the  drawing-room  the  day  of  the 
last  reception,  somewhat  before  the  arrival  of  the  other 
guests,  Miss  Meg  looked  up,  smiling,  from  a  note  in  her 
hand. 

"Mrs.  Francis  has  just  returned  from  Old  Point 
Comfort,"  she  said.  "  She  writes  that  she  will  be  here 
this  afternoon.  I  am  so  glad  that  you  will  have  an 
opportunity,  at  last,  to  meet  her." 


THE   CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL  173 

Everybody  worth,  knowing  was  to  be  met  at  Mrs. 
Francis'  house,  where  the  society  combined  a  dignified 
conservatism  with  the  best  of  modern  thought  in  litera 
ture  and  social  progress.  Her  name  was  almost  as  well 
known  abroad  as  at  home;  men  of  letters  and  of 
science,  grand  dukes,  arctic  and  equatorial  explorers, 
brought  to  her  letters  of  introduction  as  the  open 
sesame  to  the  best  that  the  New  World  afforded.  For  a 
young  girl,  to  be  noticed  by  Mrs.  Francis  was  an  honor; 
to  be  invited  to  her  house  was  to  receive  the  stamp  of 
social  prestige.  Miss  Meg  was  a  prime  favorite  of  the 
older  woman,  and  in  the  little  note  that  was  presently 
read  aloud  to  Chris,  Mrs.  Francis  stated  that  she  was 
"looking  forward  with  much  pleasure  to  becoming  ac 
quainted  with  the  little  girl  in  whom  her  dear  Meg  took 
such  an  interest." 

As  Chris  expressed  her  gratification  at  the  prospec 
tive  meeting,  Miss  Herbert  looked  up  in  her  "  hateful, 
supercilious  way,"  and  Chris  presently  took  the  oppor 
tunity  of  saying  smilingly,  — 

"  I  am  only  a  poor  ignorant  little  bud,  you  know.  I 
suppose  you  have  known  Mrs.  Francis  a  very  long  while 
indeed  ?  "  thus  cleverly  turning  the  tables  on  Miss  Her 
bert,  in  the  assumption  that  her  own  years  in  society 
entitled  her  to  the  acquaintance  of  Noah. 

Mrs.  Courtenay  had  retreated  to  the  hall  at  the  en 
trance  of  Mr.  Blake,  for  the  idea  that  the  painter  was 
bent  upon  choking  her  pet  had  taken  full  possession  of 
her.  There  Willie  Winkie  contrived,  by  some  contor- 


174  THE   CAPTAIN  OF  THE   SCHOOL 

tionist's  feat,  to  squeeze  his  fat  body  through  a  space 
between  the  balusters,  whence  he  dangled  some  feet 
below,  kicking  lustily  and  bouncing  up  and  down  like 
an  animated  return-ball,  as  he  approached  his  end  at  the 
hands  of  his  fond  mistress ;  for  Mrs.  Courtenay,  with  a 
relentless  grip  upon  the  cord,  and  deaf  to  the  chorus  of 
advice  about  her  of  "Let  go,"  was  giving  loud  vent 
to  her  grief.  Mr.  Blake  hastened  to  the  tragic  scene; 
whipping  out  his  knife,  he  cut  the  cord  and  Willie 
Winkie  dropped  to  the  hall  below,  uninjured. 

"  My  dear,  it  cannot  be  true  that  that  young  man  is  a 
theosophist  or  he  would  have  been  glad  to  see  Wee 
Willie  choke  to  death,"  whispered  Mrs.  Courtenay  to 
Chris.  "  How  we  have  misjudged  him  I  " 

Following  the  excitement  and  delay  of  this  incident, 
a  little  crowd  of  arrivals  entered  the  drawing-room 
and  Chris  caught  the  words  in  Miss  Meg's  clear,  full 
tones,  — 

"  My  dear  Mrs.  Francis  I  How  glad  I  am  to  see  you 
after  this  lapse  of  tune  1 " 

She  held  by  the  hand  with  marked  cordiality  a  tall, 
handsomely  dressed  lady  of  somewhat  pronounced 
presence,  over  whose  shoulder  she  was  smiling  at  a 
modestly  dressed  woman,  who  had  apparently  slipped 
into  the  room  in  Mrs.  Francis'  wake.  Motioning  to 
Chris,  Miss  Courtenay  murmured  introductions,  and 
turned  to  greet  other  arrivals.  Ignoring  the  plainly 
dressed  woman,  Chris  addressed  herself  to  Mrs.  Francis, 
and  in  her  most  winning  tones  asked  if  she  would  find 


THE  CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL  175 

it  pleasant  to  sit  here,  and  might  she  bring  her  tea 
or  chocolate? 

In  her  triumph,  she  did  not  notice  that  she  had  turned 
her  back  upon  the  unassuming  stranger,  who  after  a  mo 
ment  or  two  of  solitude  retired  to  the  embrasure  of  a 
window,  where  the  heavy  curtains  partially  concealed 
her  from  the  other  guests. 

"  Diffident  and  awkward ! "  thought  Chris,  as  she 
brushed  past  the  window.  "  She  will  enjoy  herself  most 
by  watching  the  other  people,  poor  thing  1 "  Giving  no 
further  heed  to  the  shy  occupant  of  the  lonely  corner, 
she  set  about  winning  her  way  into  the  good  graces  of 
Mrs.  Francis. 

Her  manner  was  the  perfection  of  the  deference  due 
from  a  young  girl  to  a  woman  of  acknowledged  character 
and  position.  She  drew  upon  her  best  conversational 
powers;  she  paid  graceful  little  compliments,  and 
listened  to  her  companion  with  an  air  of  absorbed  atten 
tion.  It  was  an  added  note  in  her  triumph  that  the 
numerous  acquaintances  of  Mrs.  Francis  who  were  no 
doubt  present  had  apparently  observed  and  respected  an 
evident  wish  for  a  tete-d-t£te.  The  girl  noticed  with 
some  disappointment,  however,  that  Miss  Herbert  was 
not  among  the  witnesses  of  her  crowning  success. 

She  did  not  see  that  Miss  Herbert  had  espied  the 
neglected  stranger ;  nor  did  she  note,  as  she  escorted  Mrs. 
Francis  to  the  door  and  received  her  cordial  invitation 
to  call,  that  all  at  once  everybody  in  the  room  seemed 
gravitating  toward  the  window. 


176  THE  CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL 

"I  have  had  such  a  lovely  time!  I  never  had  such 
a  good  time  in  my  life!"  repeated  Chris,  with  girlish 
enthusiasm,  as  she  stood  by  Miss  Meg's  side  after  the 
last  guest  had  departed. 

"  You  were  a  dear  good  girl  to  devote  yourself  to  Mrs. 
Smith,"  answered  Miss  Meg,  warmly.  "  I  have  so  little 
time  to  give  to  any  one  person,  you  know,  and  she  has 
so  few  acquaintances  in  Holbrook,  that  I  am  afraid 
she  would  have  found  it  very  stupid  but  for  your 
kindness." 

Chris's  heart  gave  a  thump  and  then  stood  still.  Had 
she — could  it  be  that  she  had  made  an  awful  blunder? 
Miss  Meg's  next  words  answered  the  unspoken  query. 

"I  had  the  higher  regard  for  you,  dear,"  she  added, 
and  one  of  her  sweet  seldom  caresses  gave  emphasis 
to  the  words,  "when  I  saw  you  devoting  yourself  to 
making  an  uninteresting  stranger  happy,  while  you 
might  have  been  enjoying  the  rare  privilege  of  a  talk 
with  lovely  Mrs.  Francis!" 

Chris  stammered  a  modest  disclaimer  of  this  certainly 
undeserved  praise,  while  horror  descended  full  upon  her. 
She  had  made  herself  agreeable  to  a  nobody,  and  turned 
her  back  upon  the  society  leader.  In  her  own  bitter  self- 
reproach,  even  Miss  Herbert's  words  were  shorn  of  their 
sting,  when  that  young  woman  took  an  early  opportunity 
of  saying,  — 

"What  a  pity  you  did  not  meet  Mrs.  Francis!  So 
sorry ! " 

The  day  was  not  to  be  concluded  without  another 


THE   CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL  177 

blow  to  Chris's  vanity.  There  was  no  one  in  the  hall 
below  as  she  adjusted  her  wraps  and  awaited  the  un 
certain  appearance  of  Bobby,  who  could  never  see  the 
necessity  of  his  sister  requiring  an  escort  across  the 
street,  or  who  was  liable  to  forget  his  promise  to  call  in 
the  stress  of  some  business  of  his  own.  Mr.  Courtenay's 
voice  was  audible  from  the  library. 

"A  silly,  affected  chit!  I  can't  imagine  what  Meg 
can  see  in  her,  except  that  Meg  would  find  some  good 
in  the  most  arrant  humbug !  I  thought  there  was 
no  nonsense  about  the  little  girls  I  used  to  see  sit 
ting  in  the  tree,  or  snowballing  one  another  on  the 
terrace." 

Chris  crept  from  the  house  out  of  sorts  with  every 
body,  and,  worst  of  all,  with  herself.  In  vain  did  she 
urge,  in  response  to  her  own  self-arraignment,  that  her 
mistake  was  a  perfectly  natural  one,  —  one  that  even 
Miss  Meg  might  have  made.  Somehow  she  could  not 
picture  Miss  Meg  turning  her  back  upon  any  one,  how 
ever  insignificant. 

At  supper  that  night,  Betty  came  out,  suddenly,  of 
one  of  the  brown  studies  to  which  she  was  prone,  to 
ask, — 

"I  suppose  if  you  saw  somebody  at  a  party  who 
didn't  know  anybody  and  who  was  sitting  in  a  corner 
all  alone  by  herself,  you  'd  go  right  up  and  speak  to  her, 
would  n't  you,  Chrissy  ?  "  The  child  repeated  with  odd 
anxiety,  "You  wouldn't  turn  your  back  on  her,  would 


you?" 


12 


178  THE  CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL 

"What  ridiculous  questions  you're  always  asking, 
Betty  I"  returned  Chris,  sharply.  "I  might  turn,  my 
back  upon  her,  I  suppose,  if  I  happened  to  be  going  that 
way.  Of  course  it  is  n't  our  business  to  see  that  other 
people  have  a  good  time." 


THE  CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL  179 


CHAPTER  SEVENTEEN 

WHAT 's  struck  Bobby  ?" 
"How  do  I  know?"  responded  Lucy,  who 
had  made  several  futile  attempts  at  renewed  good  fel 
lowship  with  his  former  chief;  but  Bobby,  feeling  that 
his  late  assistant's  perfidy  was  not  a  thing  to  be  lightly 
forgiven,  persisted  in  holding  him  at  arm's  length. 
"  Nothing 's  any  fun,  now  Bobby  does  n't  show  up," 
added  Lucy  gloomily.  "Larry  and  Hayti  have  been 
after  him,  too,  but  it 's  no  go.  Bobby 's  got  a  wheel  in 
his  head  —  I  don't  know  what." 

"Bobby  isn't  the  only  pebble  on  the  beach,"  said 
Taffy,  sulkily. 

"He's  the  smoothest  fellow  going,"  asserted  Lucy, 
sorrowfully.  "  Maybe  you  think  you  made  better  play 
than  he  could  have  done  the  day  of  the  match?"  he 
added  significantly. 

Taffy  muttered  something  unintelligible.  His  "bull 
play"  at  the  football  match  would  never  be  forgiven 
him.  Since  that  day  it  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  he 
had  been  hated  by  his  fellows.  The  other  members  of  the 
team  would  hardly  speak  to  him.  He  would  be  pointed 
out  at  future  reunions,  if  he  had  the  courage  to  attend 
them,  as  "the  fellow  who  lost  the  match,"  and  under 
that  opprobrium  his  name  would  go  down  in  the  annals 


180  THE   CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL 

of  the  school.  He  had  a  particular  object  just  now  in 
continuing  the  conversation  with  Lucy.  The  nagging 
voice  of  Cutty  still  goaded  him  like  a  visible  conscience, 
and,  worse  than  all,  he  lived  in  constant  terror  lest  his 
"  borrowing  "  be  discovered  at  home.  If  that  transac 
tion  came  to  his  father's  knowledge,  Taffy  trembled  for 
the  consequences. 

"  What 's  been  done  about  the  Snark  ?  "  he  asked, 
lowering  his  voice  and  glancing  uneasily  over  his  shoul 
der.  It  was  now  the  eve  of  publication.  "I  suppose 
it's  been  given  up?" 

"Ask  me  something  I  don't  know,"  returned  the 
late  exchange  editor,  who  in  truth,  since  his  own 
"resignation,"  had  been  doing  his  best  to  discover 
the  purposes  of  the  editor-in-chief.  "  I  don't  care 
in  the  least  what  becomes  of  the  SnarJc"  he  added 
loftily,  "  except,  of  course,  it  seems  a  pity  that  it 
should  be  run  into  the  ground  by  poor  management. 
I  expected  to  see  the  end  of  the  paper  when  we 
resigned." 

"  Of  course;  so  did  I,"  echoed  Taffy. 

"  Bobby  is  a  smooth  fellow,  all  right,"  Lucy  hastened 
to  add,  "  but  it  takes  more  than  one  kind  of  a  fellow  to 
run  a  paper.  Cash  is  necessary,  and  an  eye  for  accept 
able  items  in  the  exchanges." 

"And  a  business  editor  who  understands  the  ground," 
suggested  Taffy.  "Bobby  may  do  something  at  writ 
ing,"  he  went  on  in  a  large-hearted  way,  "  but  when  it 
comes  to  finances,  he  isn't  there." 


THE  CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL      181 

On  his  homeward  way,  Lucy  took  occasion  to  stroll 
into  Peterson's  shop. 

"Bobby  been  in?"  he  inquired  easily.  He  had 
waited  without  till  he  saw  his  former  chief's  unmistak 
able  figure  leave  the  premises. 

"  Just  left,"  answered  the  printer. 

"Yes,  ah,  yes,  that's  all  right,"  responded  Lucy. 
"  Proof  ready,  Peterson  ?  "  It  had  been  recently  the 
office  of  the  exchange  editor  to  correct  the  proof;  and 
Lucy  boldly  went  on  the  assumption  that  the  printer 
was  not  cognizant  of  the  sundered  relations  in  the 
management  of  the  Snark. 

"  Bobby  took  the  copy  and  the  plate  proof  with  him," 
answered  the  man. 

"  Who  printed  the  Snark  this  month  ? "  queried 
Lucy,  a  sudden  glimmering  of  the  truth  coming  to 
him. 

"  Bobby  did  it  himself,"  answered  the  printer.  "  He 's 
been  in  and  out  of  the  plant  for  some  tune,  you  know, 
but  you  wouldn't  have  thought  he  could  have  made 
such  a  neat  job  of  it,"  he  added  admiringly.  "  Bobby 's 
all  right!" 

"  Of  course  he  is  I "  ejaculated  Lucy,  who  found  it 
difficult  to  keep  up  the  weakest  semblance  of  ani 
mosity  against  his  adored  chief.  Only  the  thought  of 
Susie's  frowns  could  have  enabled  him  to  preserve  the 
haughty  front  demanded  by  self-respect.  "Have  you 
the  galley  proof?"  he  asked  eagerly. 

"  See  if  you  can  find  any  of  the  Snark  proof,"  Peter- 


182  THE   CAPTAIN  OF  THE   SCHOOL 

son  ordered  the  office  boy.  "  'T  ain't  everybody  I  'd  let 
fool  'round  the  plant,"  he  added ;  "  they  'd  knock  every 
thing  into  pi.  Yes,  here  't  is ;  "  and  he  handed  Lucy  a 
roll  of  besmudged  slips  of  paper,  with  margins  richly 
inscribed  with  cabalistic  signs. 

The  ex-editor  crammed  the  proof  eagerly  into  his 
pocket  and  fled.  Reaching  home,  he  got  no  farther  than 
the  hall  before  smoothing  out  the  crumpled  sheets  and 
eagerly  inspecting  their  contents. 

Bobby's  pen  was  unmistakable  in  every  line. 

"By  cracky  1"  ejaculated  Lucy,  "Bobby  beats  the 
band.  If  he  has  n't  been  the  whole  team  I "  and  for 
getful  of  all  resentment,  Lucy  capered  about  the  hall  in 
exultation  over  his  chief's  prowess.  Then  he  soberly 
read  the  leading  editorial  and  consternation  followed. 
"What  will  Susie  say?"  With  rueful  prescience  he 
answered  his  own  question.  "She'll  say  it's  all  my 
fault." 

The  forthcoming  issue  of  the  Snark  created  a  sen 
sation  among  its  school  constituency.  The  leader 
read:  — 

" '  He  that  cannot  say  "  no,"  that  is,  is  of  so  good  a  nature  that 
he  cannot  deny  anything,  or  cross  another  in  anything  is  not  fit 
for  business.'  —  PEPYS. 

"The  Editor  of  the  Snark  begs  to  state  to  our  sub 
scribers  and  to  our  honored  list  of  contributors,  that  this 
periodical  will  henceforth  be  conducted  on  the  business 
principles  indicated  by  the  above.  Good,  live  articles,  of 
a  nature  suited  to  the  interest  of  its  patrons,  will  always 
be  acceptable.  Articles  cribbed  from  The  Starry  Heavens 


THE   CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL  183 

or  the  Popular  Science  Monthly  will  be  instantly  consigned 
to  the  wastepaper  basket. 

"  Poetry  of  a  sentimental  nature  is  herewith  respectfully 
declined.  Not  from  lack  of  merit,  —  that  which  is  unsuited 
to  our  columns  will  no  doubt  be  acceptable  elsewhere,  — 
but  the  large  quantity  of  mellifluous  verse  already  on  hand 
compels  the  editor  to  regretfully  decline  much  that  would 
otherwise  be  gladly  retained. 

"Humorous  poetry  will  receive  our  prompt  attention 
and  always  find  a  ready  place  in  our  columns." 

"Gladly"  had  at  first  been  written  "rapturously;" 
but  Bobby  reflected  that  the  latter  expression  was  per 
haps  "  going  it  too  strong,"  and  might  cast  doubts  on 
the  editorial  veracity. 

"  I  don't  know  where  such  stuff  would  be  acceptable, 
though,  except  to  the  junkman,"  he  thought,  with  a 
sigh  of  relief  at  his  release  from  thraldom.  "'Pishy' 
must  throttle  her  muse,  for  her  poetry  has  reached  a 
depth  no  self-respecting  journal  would  tolerate.  She 
ought  not  to  get  mad,  when  I  've  said  it  all  so  politely, 
and  poulticed  the  wound  with  that  handsome  suggestion 
about  funny  poetry  1 "  and  Bobby  leaned  back  in  his 
chair  as  far  as  its  unstable  centre  of  gravity  would 
permit,  feeling  that  he  had  displayed  a  degree  of  di 
plomacy  equal  to  that  which  had  finessed  the  Ashbur- 
ton  Treaty.  "  Still,  there  is  no  knowing  what  a  re 
jected  author  —  worse,  an  enraged  poetess — will  do  I" 
he  added,  as  one  to  whom  the  sanctum  had  revealed 
intricacies  of  human  nature  hardly  more  astounding 
than  discreditable. 


184  THE   CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL 

The  next  day  Susie  Grossman  appeared  at  school 
with  red  eyes  and  a  manner  expressive  of  the  deepest 
injury.  Lucy's  foreboding  proved  too  true.  His  little 
sweetheart  cut  him  dead  because  of  "  that  mean,  hateful 
editorial  1 " 

"The  rest  was  bad  enough,"  she  sobbed  to  Lou, 
"  but  to  think  of  his  telling  me  to  write  funny  poetry !  " 

The  result  of  this  decisive  action  did  not  end,  how 
ever,  with  those  immediately  concerned.  Susie's  friends 
rallied  around  the  insulted  poetess,  and  bore  themselves 
with  marked  coldness  toward  the  boys,  whom  they  chose 
to  regard  as  being  in  a  confederacy,  based  upon  literary 
jealousy,  against  the  girls.  Dancing  at  recess  was 
given  over,  and  they  stood  in  knots  about  the  corridor, 
in  haughty  indifference  to  what  the  boys  were  doing; 
while  the  boys  amused  themselves  on  the  parade  ground, 
with  great  apparent  success,  if  much  talk  and  loud 
laughter  told  a  truthful  tale.  The  friendly  relations, 
the  mutual  give  and  take,  that  had  always  existed  be 
tween  the  Holbrook  boys  and  girls  seemed  at  an  end, 
before  either  party  fairly  knew  how  it  had  come  about. 

Several  tunes  a  week  Bobby  went  to  the  city  — 
walking  to  save  fares  —  to  solicit  advertisements  for 
the  Snark.  His  success  in  this  direction  was  limited, 
for  it  was  the  dull  season ;  but  everybody  received  him 
with  a  smile  and  a  pleasant  word  and  the  suggestion, 
"  Come  again !  "  Who,  indeed,  ever  said,  "  Get  out! "  to 
Bobby?  He  sat  up  till  midnight  writing  editorials, 
incidents  connected  with  school  life,  class  jokes,  the 


THE   CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL  185 

latest  blunder  in  recitation.  A  serial  story,  though 
strongly  flavored  with  Henty  and  Conan  Doyle,  had  at 
least  the  merit  of  action,  for  the  number  of  hairbreadth 
escapes  and  marvellous  "  clews "  followed  up  to  the 
villain's  undoing  might  have  been  warranted  to  keep 
the  blood  of  the  most  phlegmatic  reader  at  fever  heat. 
Lucy,  who  kept  a  watchful  eye  upon  his  ex-chief's 
movements,  saw  him,  one  day,  emerging  from  the 
church,  and  questioning  the  old  sexton,  learned  that 
Bobby  was  acting  as  his  assistant.  He  discovered,  also, 
that  Bobby  was  shovelling  snow  from  the  sidewalks 
all  over  town,  sawing  wood  for  any  one  who  needed 
such  service,  and  helping  about  the  Holbrook  stables 
wherever  extra  help  was  wanted. 

As  reporter,  business  manager,  and  compositor,  Bobby 
might  have  indulged  in  pleasing  reminiscences  of  Ben 
jamin  Franklin  and  Horace  Greeley,  but  the  conduct  of 
the  Snark  was  only  a  small  part  of  the  business  that 
absorbed  his  time.  His  gains  were  small,  but  they  were 
steady,  and  every  Saturday  night  saw  a  reduction  in  his 
indebtedness  to  Griff.  To  the  young  shopkeeper  this 
weekly  visit  was  the  one  bright  spot  of  his  life.  As 
soon  as  Bobby  was  gone,  he  began  to  reckon  the  days 
and  hours  before  he  should  see  him  again,  dreading 
to  think  of  the  time  when  the  debt  should  be  paid. 
One  stormy  night,  when  he  had  been  a  little  later  than 
usual  in  carrying  the  papers,  Bobby  lingered  a  moment 
by  the  stove,  and  Griff  hastened  fussily  to  shake  it. 
Bobby  placed  his  hand  on  the  other's  shoulder,  with 


186  THE   CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL 

the  mere  unthinking  impulse  with  which  he  would  have 
patted  the  head  of  an  ill-treated  cur  that  sought  to  lick 
his  hand.  Griff  vaguely  felt  all  this.  Nevertheless, 
with  that  careless  touch,  something  of  new  hope  and 
manhood  seemed  infused  into  his  being.  Perhaps,  after 
all,  there  was  room  for  him  in  the  world. 

Lou  was  the  confidant  of  Susie  Grossman  regarding  a 
new  school  journal  that  was  presently  to  make  its  saluta 
tory,  to  be  called  the  Spinster,  —  its  name  defiantly  an 
nouncing  its  management  and  policy.  The  other  girls 
were  nobly  seconding  the  efforts  of  the  editor  to  produce  a 
journal  that  should  so  far  outshine  the  Snark  as  to  show 
the  repentant  editor  of  the  latter  periodical  what  he  had 
lost  in  declining  feminine  co-operation.  The  editorial 
desk  of  the  Spinster  was  already  stuffed  to  repletion  with 
sentimental  and  tragic  tales  and  reams  of  gloomy  poetry. 

"  Those  horrid  boys  will  make  fun  if  I  print  it,  and 
Alice  will  get  mad  if  I  don't,"  thought  the  editor  of 
the  new  school  journal,  as  she  laid  down  another  tale 
that  ended  in  the  misery  of  everybody  concerned.  "  I 
wonder  if  she  would  ever  speak  to  me  again  if  I  changed 
the  ending  and  let  them  marry  and  live  happy  ever 
after." 

The  editor  of  the  Spinster  signed  herself  "  Susan  L. 
Grossman." 

One  afternoon  as  Chris  was  returning  from  a  round 
of  calls,  to  her  amazement  she  beheld  Bobby  emerging 
from  the  back  door  of  the  house  whose  front  entrance 
she  had  just  left.  His  sooty  hands  and  hair  prematurely 


THE   CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL  187 

gray  with  a  liberal  sprinkling  of  ashes  indicated  even 
to  his  unsuspecting  sister  what  his  business  had 
been  at  the  house  of  one  of  her  most  fashionable 
acquaintances. 

"What  are  you  doing?"  she  exclaimed  in  horror- 
stricken  tones. 

"Taking  care  of  the  Forbes'  furnace,"  answered  her 
brother,  easily. 

"What  for?" 

"  For  the  fun  of  it,"  answered  Bobby,  with  a  brevity 
indicating  that  confidences  were  not  in  the  order  of 
the  day. 

"  What  will  people  say  ?  What  could  have  put  such 
an  idea  into  your  head  ?  Don't  1 "  entreated  Chris,  as  her 
brother  strode  along  by  her  side,  his  appearance  in 
startling  contrast  to  her  own  dainty  costume.  "How 
can  you  do  it?" 

"  Muscle,"  answered  Bobby,  succinctly.  "  Brains 
don't  count  for  much  under  thirty,  but  brawn  always 
commands  its  price,"  he  added,  feeling  of  his  biceps  in  a 
self-gratulatory  way.  "  I  shook  the  furnace  out  of 
gear  at  St.  Barnabas  the  other  day,  and  Mr.  Carr 
begged  me  not  to  emulate  Samson." 

"  It 's  such  dirty  work,"  gasped  Chris. 

"  But  it  brings  clean  money,"  retorted  Bobby. 

"If  you're  trying  to  earn  money  against  Colonel 
Jerome's  visit,  the  whole  idea  is  absurd,"  went  on  Chris, 
irritably.  "It  was  simply  one  of  Nan's  impracticable 
schemes.  Colonel  Jerome  must  take  us  as  he  finds  us." 


188      THE  CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL 

Bobby  began  whistling  the  "  Walrus  Chorus." 

"Mr.  Courtenay  is  going  to  give  me  a  job  in  his 
office,"  he  said  presently. 

"  Well,  if  you  want  to  earn  money  I  'm  glad  you  're 
going  to  do  it  in  a  respectable  way,"  returned  Chris, 
somewhat  mollified.  "What  did  Mr.  Courtenay  say 
when  you  asked  him?" 

"Oh,  I  didn't  ask  him,"  returned  Bobby,  easily. 
"  I  've  brought  his  trap  around  once  or  twice'lately  when 
Mike  was  busy ;  the  other  day  he  looked  up  as  though 
he  saw  me  for  the  first  time  and  said  they  needed  an 
extra  hand  in  the  office.  I  'm  to  give  Saturdays  to  it, 
and  afternoons  the  rest  of  the  week.  Old  Courtenay 
is  a  brick,"  added  Bobby,  speaking  with  enthusiasm, 
even  if  with  something  of  disrespect,  of  his  prospective 
employer. 

But  Betty's  secret  was  the  most  momentous  of  all. 


THE   CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL  189 


CHAPTER  EIGHTEEN 

EVERYBODY  in  Betty's  school  was  her  « intimate 
friend,"  from  the  big  girls  in  the  first  class  to  the 
little  toddlers  just  learning  their  a  b  c's.  She  shone 
more  in  this  extended  social  circle  than  in  the  class-room, 
where  her  diligence  was  chiefly  directed  in  such  short 
cuts  to  learning  as  were  embodied  in  the  lines, — 

"  In  fourteen  hundred  ninety-two, 
Columbus  sailed  the  ocean  blue," 

or, 

"  First  William  the  Norman, 
Then  William  his  son." 

But  she  was  so  unfailingly  and  elaborately  polite  to 
both  teachers  and  scholars,  so  fertile  in  excuses  for 
unlearned  lessons  or  ingenious  in  her  attempted  answers, 
always  accompanied  by  a  beaming  smile  as  though 
assured  of  well-merited  praise,  that  she  was  as  much  of  a 
favorite  with  Miss  Lang  as  with  her  playmates,  notwith 
standing  the  frequent  necessity  in  her  recitations  of  re 
proof  or  punishment.  Betty's  sociability,  too,  brought  her 
into  frequent  trouble;  and  many  and  bitter  were  the 
tears  she  shed  at  losing  her  recess  or  having  to  remain 
after  school,  —  penalties  which  as  depriving  her  of 
society  represented  the  severest  punishment  that  could 


190  THE  CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL 

be  inflicted.  Zealously  as  Betty  had  striven,  she  had 
never  attained  a  place  in  the  "Banner  Row,"  as  the 
seats  were  called  on  the  extreme  right  of  the  room, 
where,  in  proud  isolation  of  virtue,  sat  those  little 
boys  and  girls  who  had  refrained  from  whispering  a 
whole  month.  Betty  always  meant  "never,  never  to 
whisper  again,  truly  honest,"  particularly  when  a  talk 
after  school  with  her  teacher  had  reduced  her  to  a 
Niobe  state  of  contrition;  for  she  dearly  loved  Miss 
Lang,  and  always  meant  to  be  a  "  little  help "  to  her, 
instead  of  —  as  she  called  herself  in  those  moments 
of  tearful,  but  alas  impotent  penitence  —  "a  great 
bother." 

In  pleasant  weather  the  children  played  at  recess  in 
the  schoolhouse  yard,  where  Betty  and  a  half-score  of  her 
particular  friends  walked  up  and  down  with  arms  inter 
twined,  discussing  school  affairs  and  exchanging  "secrets." 
The  little  girls  in  Betty's  class  had  a  secret  society  like 
the  girls  in  the  upper  room,  known  as  the  "K.  P. 
Society,"  —  "Keep  Private,"  —  of  which  the  badge  was 
a  blue  ribbon  tied  into  the  top  buttonhole  of  the  left 
boot;  a  happy  arrangement  for  the  President,  as  the 
top  button  of  her  honored  boot  was  usually  missing. 
This  badge  of  eternal  fidelity  had  lost  something  of  its 
pristine  freshness  by  splashes  from  mud-puddles,  reckless 
scaling  of  adjacent  snowbanks,  and  falls  on  the  ice, — 
there  was  always  a  beautiful  long  slide  from  the  school- 
house  steps  to  the  gate,  worn  to  glassy  smoothness  by 
the  swift  passage  of  many  little  feet.  It  was  difficult  to 


THE   CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL  191 

say  at  any  given  time  what  the  "  secret "  was,  for  it  was 
changed  at  frequent  intervals,  and  never  in  any  case 
remained  a  secret  long. 

On  stormy  days  the  children  had  recess  in  a  basement 
cellar,  where  they  played  "  Button,  Button,"  "  Hunt  the 
Squirrel,"  and  "  Little  Sally  Waters,"  the  chorus  rising 
to  so  shrill  a  crescendo  at  the  closing  lines,  — 

"  Turn  to  the  east  and  turn  to  the  west, 
And  turn  to  the  very  one  that  you  love  best," 

as  would  effectually  have  scared  the  little  god  of  love 
from  the  premises.  But  the  favorite  amusement  was 
playing  "keep  house,"  for  which  the  cellar  afforded 
exceptional  facilities.  Before  each  of  the  three  furnaces 
was  a  recess  sufficiently  large  to  afford  lodging  —  albeit 
somewhat  crowded  —  for  a  family  comprising  parents, 
eight  or  ten  children  and  an  unlimited  number  of  in 
fants  represented  by  sticks  taken  from  the  woodpile 
and  wrapped  in  handkerchiefs.  Betty,  of  course,  was 
the  head  of  one  family  and  usually  selected  Maud 
Courtenay  for  her  husband,  the  latter  being  of  too 
gentle  disposition  for  the  demands  of  the  maternal  r6le. 
Not  content  with  ruling  her  own  household  with  a  rod 
of  iron,  Betty  laid  down  the  law  for  the  community. 
The  relations  between  the  several  households  were  always 
complicated  and  frequently  inimical,  for  each  family 
stood  rigidly  upon  its  dignity,  and  an  unceasing  strife 
for  precedence  kept  life  in  the  cellar  areas  from 
stagnation. 


192  THE  CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL 

The  selection  in  the  School  Reader  beginning, 
"  Burnt  Marmion's  swarthy  face  like  fire," 

was  a  favorite  with  Betty,  who  had  accordingly  elected 
to  call  herself  and  husband  Mrs.  and  Mr.  Burnt  Marmion, 
—  cellar  etiquette  prescribing  that  the  lady's  name 
should  precede  that  of  her  spouse.  The  family  in  the 
adjoining  recess  were  known  as  King  and  Queen  Zeno- 
bia,  while  Evangeline  set  up  housekeeping  under  the 
style  and  title  of  Mrs.  Thanatopsis. 

To  every  new-comer  in  the  school  Betty  extended  the 
chubby  right  hand  of  good  fellowship;  she  introduced 
her  forthwith  to  the  other  little  girls  with  the  formality 
prescribed  by  the  most  punctilious  etiquette,  inducted 
her  into  the  games,  admitted  her  to  membership  in  the 
"  K.  P.,"  and  gave  her  timely  warning  of  "  Old  Sukey." 
One  day  there  was  a  knock  at  the  schoolroom  door,  and 
those  who  sat  near  saw  Miss  Lang  hold  a  brief  colloquy 
in  the  hall  with  a  shabbily  dressed  woman  to  whose 
hand  a  little  girl  was  clinging.  The  new  scholar  was 
presently  given  a  seat  next  Betty.  She  was  a  pretty 
little  girl  with  large,  soft  brown  eyes  that  she  raised 
appealingly  to  the  face  of  any  one  who  addressed  her,  and 
curly  golden  hair  that  reached  below  her  waist,  —  veri 
table  fairy  princess  locks  that  aroused  Betty's  fervent 
admiration.  She  smiled  across  the  aisle  at  the  new 
comer  and  with  difficulty  forebore  from  whispering  a 
welcome.  Betty  had  set  her  heart  upon  getting  into  the 
Banner  Row  that  month;  her  efforts  seemed,  at  last, 


THE   CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL  193 

about  to  be  crowned  with  success,  for  some  three  weeks 
of  the  time  of  probation  had  already  elapsed, — a  longer 
period  than  she  had  ever  before  stood  the  test.  Miss  Lang 
observed  the  sudden  flush,  the  quick  tightening  of  the 
lips,  as  well  as  the  look  of  welcome,  and  laid  an  affection 
ate  helping  hand  on  Betty's  shoulder;  and  the  child 
smiled  up  at  her  teacher  and  thought  for  the  hundredth 
time  that  she  would  never  again  whisper  or  do  aught 
else  that  could  trouble  Miss  Lang. 

It  was  speedily  known  that  Lassie  Brown  lived  in  the 
"  Beyond,"  as  an  outcast  settlement  on  the  borders  of 
Holbrook  was  called.  Not  without  forethought  had  she 
been  given  a  seat  next  Betty ;  for  though  the  little  girls 
of  the  "Dudley  Primary"  were  too  gently  bred,  with 
the  exception  of  Evangeline,  to  treat  rudely  any  one  less 
favored  than  themselves,  Miss  Lang  knew  children  too 
well  and  had  read  the  sensitive  pale  face  of  the  new 
comer  too  clearly,  not  to  be  aware  that  questioning 
glances  and  thoughtless  words  might  wound  as  well 
as  deliberate  unkindness. 

Betty  lost  no  tune  in  fulfilling  the  congenial  office  of 
chaperon,  and  that  very  recess,  after  she  had  duly  gone 
through  the  requisite  formalities,  invited  Lassie  to  be 
her  husband,  coolly  telling  the  late  Burnt  Mannion  that 
she  could  be  cook,  —  a  position,  however,  under  the 
social  order  that  prevailed  in  the  cellar,  not  perceptibly 
inferior  to  that  of  wedded  lord.  But  the  sudden  and 
violent  intimacy  in  the  next  house  proved  a  cause  of 
offence  to  Mrs.  Thanatopsis,  who  forthwith  showed  her 

13 


194  THE   CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL 

resentment  by  neglecting  to  return  Mrs.  Burnt  Mar- 
mion's  greeting  when  his  lordship's  household  were  out 
on  a  constitutional  by  the  coal-bin.  This  ebullition  of 
ill-feeling  made  Betty's  display  of  affection  for  her 
spouse  more  marked  than  ever,  so  that  at  the  close  of 
recess  she  had  even  exchanged  her  cornelian  ring  with 
one  of  Lassie's,  fashioned  out  of  a  bone  button,  as  a 
pledge  of  everlasting  friendship. 

It  was  about  this  time  that  surprise  parties  came  into 
vogue.  Betty  was  invited  to  several  of  these  entertain 
ments  by  her  friends  in  the  upper  class,  and  being 
greatly  pleased  with  the  novel  festivity,  would  gladly 
have  "  surprised  "  every  man,  woman,  and  child  of  her 
acquaintance,  at  the  head  of  a  basket-laden  troop,  at 
three  o'clock  Saturday  afternoon,  —  that  being  the 
fashionable  hour  for  the  new  function.  Besides  the 
pleasure  of  the  actual  occasion,  there  was  —  what  was 
even  more  enjoyable  —  the  previous  mystification,  the 
whispered  confidences  concerning  what  one  was  to  wear 
or  intended  to  contribute  to  the  entertainment,  subsiding 
into  frantic  giggles  as  the  proposed  victim  came  within 
earshot.  Betty,  of  course,  was  not  long  in  organizing 
one  of  these  festivities.  Maud  Courtenay  was  selected 
for  the  honor  of  being  "surprised."  Mrs.  Courtenay 
gave  assent,  and  Miss  Meg  kindly  promised  co-opera 
tion  and  secrecy.  In  this  new  and  absorbing  interest 
the  slide  was  neglected,  the  games  were  abandoned,  and 
even  "  keep  house  "  forgotten.  Mrs.  Burnt  Marmion  and 
Mrs.  Thanatopsis  buried  their  feud,  and  the  "K.  P. 


THE   CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL  195 

Society"  tied   new  ribbons  in  its   boots   in   honor   of 
this  latest  and  most  stupendous  secret. 

But  the  one  who  was  the  most  interested  of  all 
in  the  coming  event  was  Lassie  Brown.  She  never 
wearied  of  listening,  open-eyed,  to  the  reminiscences 
of  other  parties, — what  dresses  had  been  worn,  what 
games  played,  and  what  they  had  had  for  supper.  Her 
questions  were  innumerable,  and  her  gratitude  for  any 
information  was  unbounded.  Betty  not  only  gave  her 
prote'ge'  the  benefit  of  her  own  wide  social  experience, 
but  kindly  undertook  to  coach  her  for  the  approaching 
occasion. 

"  Have  n't  you  ever  been  to  a  party  before,  Lassie  ?  " 
began  this  blase  young  woman.  "  Dear  me,  where  can 
you  have  lived  all  your  life  ?  " 

As  Lassie's  existence,  previous  to  going  to  her 
"  lovely  home  in  the  country,"  had  been  passed  in  the 
city  slums,  her  opportunities  for  parties  had  not  been 
many.  A  Fourth  of  July  on  the  Common,  when  she 
had  seen  the  balloon  rise  and  had  some  pink  lemonade, 
and  a  car  ride  to  the  park,  where  she  heard  the  band 
play  and  saw  the  electrical  fountain,  made  up  the  list 
of  her  festive  memories. 

"  Well,  you  may  go  with  me,"  went  on  Betty,  "  and  if 
you  don't  know  what  to  do,  just  watch  me  and  you  will 
be  all  right.  In  the  first  place,  you  are  shown  to  a  room 
where  you  take  off  your  things  and  smooth  your  hair. 
Then  you  go  downstairs  to  the  drawing-room,  and  walk 
up  to  Miss  Courtenay  and  Maud  and  say,  '  How  do  you 


196  THE  CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL 

do,  Miss  Courtenay  ? '  and  she  will  say,  *  I  am  very  glad 
to  see  you,  Miss  Brown.'  " 

"  Shall  I  say,  '  Hullo,  Maud  '  ? "  queried  Lassie,  anx 
ious  to  do  her  friend  credit. 

"  Of  course  not,"  frowned  Betty.  " '  Hullo '  is  just 
for  school ;  it  is  n't  for  parties  and  Sundays.  You  must 
say  *  How  do  you  do  ? '  to  Maud  too ;  and  remember  not 
to  giggle  when  you  say  it." 

"  I  think  I  could  do  that,"  murmured  Lassie. 

"  What  you  observe  does  n't  matter  so  much  as  the 
way  you  observe  it,"  returned  Betty,  loftily.  "  That  is 
all  I  have  been  hi  the  habit  of  saying,  but  I  asked  my 
sister  Chrissy,  who  is  very  elegant  and  very  much  ad 
mired  in  society,  if  she  said  anything  else  ;  and  she  told 
me  she  generally  answered,  *  So  glad  to  come  to  your 
delightful  house,  dear  Mrs.  Courtenay  1 ' ' 

"  Please  stop  a  minute.  Let  me  see  if  I  can  say 
that,"  said  Lassie,  puckering  her  pretty  arched  brows. 
" '  So  glad  —  so  glad  —  you  've  come  to  my  delightful 
house—'" 

"  Lassie  Brown,  you  have  n't  got  it  straight,  and  you 
must  n't  say  that  anyway,  'cause  I  'm  going  to,"  cried 
Betty,  indignant  at  this  flagrant  infringement  of  copy 
right.  "  You  'd  better  just  smile  and  get  out  of  the  way 
as  quick  as  you  can.  If  one  isn't  used  to  society,  it 
isn't  safe  to  put  on  too  many  frills." 

"  What  comes  next  ?  "  questioned  Lassie. 

"  We  play  games.  You  can  play  *  Geography '-  splen 
didly,"  went  on  Betty,  encouragingly,  "  because  you  al- 


THE   CAPTAIN  OF  THE   SCHOOL  197 

ways  remember  all  the  hard  names.  I  am  apt  to  get 
excited  and  think  that '  Jersey '  begins  with  a  *  G.'  It 's 
like  a  spelling-match,  you  know;  we  choose  sides  and 
each  side  tries  to  think  of  all  the  cities  and  mountains 
and  rivers  that  begin  with  a  certain  letter.  Now  what 
are  you  going  to  wear  ?  "  went  on  the  Mentor. 

"  I  have  a  lovely  pink  sateen  "  —  Lassie  pronounced 
it  "  satin  "  —  "  that  a  lady  who  goes  out  scrubbing  gave 
to  my  sister  Agnes.  She  says  I  may  wear  it." 

"  I  '11  lend  you  my  Roman  sash ;  it  will  just  match," 
proffered  Betty,  with  anticipated  pride  in  her  prot^g^'s 
appearance. 

That  afternoon,  on  her  way  to  school,  Betty  was  over 
taken  by  Evangeline,  whose  sharp  eyes  instantly  descried 
the  parcel  in  her  friend's  hand. 

"  Lemme  see  what  you  've  got  there,"  said  she. 

"  It  is  n't  for  you,"  answered  Betty,  indignantly. 

"  It 's  for  Lassie  Brown,"  returned  Evangeline, 
quickly. 

Betty  vouchsafed  no  reply. 

"  My  ma  is  n't  willing  for  me  to  'sociate  with  a  beggar 
child,"  went  on  Evangeline.  "  If  she  goes  to  the  party, 
I  dunno  as  I  shall  go." 

"  Lassie  is  n't  a  beggar !  "  cried  Betty,  indignantly. 
"  She  always  has  her  lessons  better  than  you  or  I,  and 
she  hasn't  whispered  once  since  she's  been  in  school. 
She  '11  be  in  the  Banner  Row  next  month." 

"  Poh  I  so  could  I  be  there,  too,  easy  as  wink,  if  I 
wanted  to,"  retorted  Evangeline.  "I  dare  say  Lassie 


198  THE   CAPTAIN  OF  THE   SCHOOL 

has  n't  stood  up  lots  of  times  when  Miss  Lang  has  asked 
for  those  who  whispered." 

"  Lassie  would  n't  do  such  a  thing,"  maintained  Betty, 
stoutly.  "  She  'd  know  it  was  n't  polite." 

"  H'm,  polite !  "  sniffed  Evangeline.  "  I  b'lieve  you 
think  all  folks  have  got  to  do  to  get  into  heaven  is  just 
to  be  polite,  Betty  Bradstreet  Dudley  ! "  with  a  haughty 
fling  of  her  skirts,  that  spoke,  louder  than  words,  of  her 
contempt  for  social  upstarts.  Then  she  struck  upon 
a  sensitive  chord.  "  Only  think  how  mortified  your 
sister  Chrissy  will  be  to  have  Miss  Courtenay  s'pose  you 
go  with  folks  in  the  *  Beyond '  I  Like  as  not,  Lassie 
eats  with  her  knife  and  does  not  know  what  to  do  with 
a  napkin.  I  presume  likely  Miss  Courtenay  will  send 
her  right  straight  home." 

"  I  don't  believe  Miss  Courtenay  would  do  that,"  re 
sponded  Betty,  faintly,  as  the  two  children  reached  the 
schoolhouse  door. 

There  was  time  to  slip  the  parcel  into  Lassie's 
hands  before  school  began  and  to  receive  from  her  a 
look  full  of  love  and  gratitude.  The  sash  was  more 
beautiful  than  anything  Lassie  had  ever  seen ;  it  was 
even  lovelier  than  the  rainbow  whose  colors  it  seemed  to 
have  borrowed.  She  tore  a  tiny  hole  in  the  wrappings, 
through  which  she  could  twist  the  soft  fringe  about  her 
finger,  and  sent  little  loving  looks  across  the  aisle  more 
eloquent  than  words.  Of  Thanksgiving  Lassie  had 
never  heard;  Christmas  was  only  a  name  to  her;  over 
her  birthday  none  had  ever  rejoiced.  The  party  was 


THE   CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL  199 

one  and  all  of  those  blissful  epochs  of  childhood  in  one 
to  her.  She  thought  of  it  by  day  and  dreamt  of  it  by 
night,  and  its  anticipation  was  to  her  as  the  foretaste  of 
heaven.  With  the  possession  of  the  Roman  sash  her 
cup  of  happiness  ran  over. 

In  spite  of  herself,  Evangeline's  stinging  words  re 
peated  themselves  over  and  over  again  in  Betty's  mind 
as  she  bent  over  her  geography  lesson.  She  began  to 
have  grave  misgivings,  too,  about  that  "  pink  satin." 
Lassie  had  shown  it  to  her  yesterday,  as  a  precious 
secret  "between  us  two,"  and  even  to  uncritical  eyes 
the  dress  looked  as  though  it  had  seen  service  in  the 
"  washerlady's "  vocation  before  descending  to  Agnes. 
Besides,  its  present  owner  was  tall  and  lanky,  and  it  was 
to  be  feared  that  the  frock  might  not  adapt  itself  to 
Lassie's  round  little  form  as  the  dresses  of  "  Alice  in 
Wonderland  "  were  adjusted  to  the  growth  or  diminu 
tion  of  that  adventuresome  little  girl. 

But  the  rankling  thought  below  all  the  rest  was, 
What  would  Chrissy  say  to  her  introducing  at  the 
Courtenays'  as  her  own  particular  "intimate  friend" 
a  little  girl  who  lived  in  the  "Beyond"?  Chris  had 
described  with  such  amplitude  of  detail  the  gowns  that 
were  worn  at  each  party,  she  had  dwelt  with  such 
enthusiasm  on  Miss  Meg's  "lovely  manners"  that  to 
Betty,  in  her  unquestioning  faith  in  and  admiration  for 
her  eldest  sister,  a  beautiful  gown  and  the  glib  utterance 
of  conventional  phrases  were  all  that  were  demanded 
even  of  grown-up  people  who  went  to  parties.  Only  the 


200  THE   CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL 

night  before,  pondering  these  weighty  questions,  the 
happy  thought  occurred  to  her  of  asking  her  sister 
what  she  would  do  in  a  like  emergency  to  that  which 
was  now  puzzling  her,  and  Chrissy  had  answered,  oh, 
so  crossly,  — 

"Of  course  it  isn't  our  business  to  see  that  other 
people  have  a  good  time.  I  'd  turn  my  back  on  them 
if  I  were  going  that  way." 

Betty's  forehead  had  nearly  touched  the  troublesome 
map  questions,  when,  suddenly  raising  her  head,  she  met 
that  glad,  loving  look  of  Lassie's.  Forgetful  for  the 
moment  of  everything  but  her  friend's  happiness,  she 
whispered,  — 

"  Tie  it  in  a  big  bow." 

The  selfsame  moment  the  consequences  of  her  thought 
less  act  flashed  across  her.  She  had  lost  her  place  in  the 
Banner  Row.  On  the  last  day  of  the  month,  at  almost 
the  last  hour,  when  she  had  worked  so  hard  for  four  long 
weeks.  It  was  all  Lassie's  fault  1 

Even  the  party  was  forgotten,  as  Betty,  putting  her 
arms  upon  her  desk,  gave  way  to  a  flood  of  tears  that 
bid  fair  to  convert  the  Desert  of  Sahara  into  a  pink  and 
watery  waste.  Not  even  Miss  Lang's  gentle  words  of 
regret  and  attempted  encouragement  could  lighten  the 
bitter  disappointment,  and  when  the  ten  minutes'  duress 
after  school  had  expired,  it  was  with  red  and  swollen 
eyes  that  Betty  made  her  appearance  in  the  school-yard. 

A  group  of  little  girls  were  gathered  by  the  gate, 
Lassie  standing  somewhat  apart  from  the  others,  with 


THE   CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL  201 

a  look  of  anxious  expectancy  turned  toward  the  school- 
house  door.  As  Betty  emerged,  Evangeline's  shrill, 
high-pitched  voice  was  saying,  — 

"Who  asked  you  to  the  party,  Lassie  Brown?  Who 
do  you  think  will  speak  to  a  beggar  child  from  the 
'Beyond'?" 

Lassie  raised  her  soft  brown  eyes  to  Betty's  face  with 
a  look  that  was  at  once  appealing  and  trustful.  Her 
lips  were  quivering,  one  arm  was  slightly  raised  as 
though  to  tAvine  itself  about  her  friend.  Betty  met  the 
look  stonily,  brushed  past  the  extended  arm,  and  turning 
her  back  full  upon  Lassie,  entered  into  eager  discussion 
with  Evangeline.  The  "beggar  child"  stood  for  a 
moment  like  a  little  statue  with  extended  arm,  hearing 
no  one,  seeing  no  one  but  Betty.  Then,  without  a  word 
of  surprise  or  remonstrance,  she  walked  slowly  away, 
holding  to  her  heart,  tightly  clasped  in  both  hands,  a 
tissue-paper  parcel. 

The  following  afternoon  Maud  was  as  much  surprised 
and  delighted  as  one  could  expect  a  hostess  to  be  on 
entering  her  drawing-room  and  finding  a  score  of  her 
friends  seated  on  the  edges  of  as  many  chairs  in  a  state 
of  suppressed  giggle.  Betty  was  in  high  feather,  not 
only  at  the  success  of  the  "  surprisement,"  but  at  taking 
the  leading  part  in  every  game  throughout  the  afternoon. 
She  retained  the  last  seat  in  "Jerusalem,"  she  was 
chosen  as  the  brightest  in  "Compliments,"  and  so  far 
distinguished  herself  in  "  Geography "  as  to  save  her 
side,  at  the  critical  moment,  by  an  opportune  recollection 


202  THE   CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL 

of  a  remote  hamlet  on  the  coast  of  Siberia,  whose  name 
no  one  else  would  have  ventured  to  pronounce. 

"That  isn't  fair;  there  is  no  such  place!"  cried 
Evangeline,  who  headed  the  other  party. 

"  Yes,  there  is,"  answered  Betty,  with  her  usual  con 
fidence.  "It  is  used  as  a  depot  of  supplies  in  case 
anybody  wants  them,"  and  could  see  no  reason  for  Miss 
Meg's  laughter. 

In  the  dining-room  a  surprise  awaited  the  surprisers. 
A  number  of  little  round  tables  were  decorated  with 
ribbons  and  flowers  and  colored  candles  in  pretty  shades. 
There  was  a  button-hole  bouquet  for  every  boy  and  a 
basket  of  bonbons  for  each  girl.  The  last  requirement 
of  a  party  was  fulfilled  when  there  appeared  ice-cream 
and  "  snappers."  Miss  Meg  herself  pulled  Betty's  bon 
bon  with  her,  and  smilingly  fitted  the  Puritan  cap  it 
contained  about  the  rosy  little  face.  "  Like  some  Betty 
Dudley  of  two  hundred  and  fifty  years  ago,"  she  said. 
A  merry  hubbub  ensued  as  all  the  children  arrayed 
themselves  in  the  quaint  Normandy  bonnets,  befrilled 
aprons,  and  ruffled  capes,  and  flocking  into  the  drawing- 
room,  wound  up  the  happy  afternoon  with  an  impromptu 
German.  When  the  time  came  to  say  good-bye,  Betty 
quite  forgot  her  elegance,  and  putting  her  arms  around 
Miss  Meg's  neck,  cried  rapturously,  — 

"  Oh,  dear  Miss  Meg,  thank  you  ever  so  much  I  I  've 
had  the  beautifulest  time  that  ever  was  I "  And  Miss 
Meg  did  not  seem  to  mind  the  absence  of  "company" 
manners. 


THE  CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL  203 

If  the  recollection  of  a  beseeching  little  face  obtruded 
itself  more  than  once  into  the  midst  of  her  good  time, 
Betty  thrust  it  from  her  with  the  thought,  "  It  is  n't  my 
business  to  see  that  other  people  have  a  good  time !  " 

Soon  after  the  party  Betty's  "  Whats  "  increased  so 
alarmingly  that  Chris,  fearing  her  recent  illness  had 
affected  the  child's  hearing,  took  her  to  Dr.  Burnham. 
The  assurance  was  speedily  given  that  Betty's  ears  were 
in  a  healthy  condition. 

"  Is  there  much  illness  in  Holbrook  ?  "  inquired  Chris, 
casually. 

"  Very  little  in  Holbrook,"  was  the  answer.  "  Several 
cases  have  broken  out,  however,  in  the  '  Beyond,' "  added 
the  doctor,  to  whom  the  condition  of  affairs  on  the  other 
side  of  the  railroad  track  had  long  been  a  cause  of  un 
availing  warfare.  "The  worst  cases  are  in  a  family 
who  have  recently  moved  in,  named  Brown.  The 
youngest  little  girl  died  last  Saturday." 


204  THE   CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL 


CHAPTER   NINETEEN 

BETTY  cried  at  the  top  of  her  voice  all  the  way 
home,  hanging  at  arm's  length  to  Chris's  hand, 
and  unheeding  her  sister's  remonstrances  and  attempts 
at  consolation. 

"I  did  it!  It  wasn't  her  illness  that  killed  her. 
Her  heart  was  broken  and  it  was  I  who  broke  it. 
I  feel  just  as  I  did  when  I  killed  the  dear  little  baby 
alligator;  only  it 's  ever  so  much  worse  to  kill  your 
friend." 

"Do  stop  crying  till  we  get  home,"  pleaded  Chris. 
"  Everybody  is  looking  at  us."  She  had  indeed,  passed 
several  of  her  acquaintances ;  and  just  then  Miss  Herbert, 
across  the  street,  bowed  and  smiled  with  a  somewhat 
ostentatious  display  of  ignoring  what  appeared  to  be  a 
family  fracas. 

"  Oh,  Chrissy,  Chrissy,  how  could  you  say  it  was  n't 
our  business  to  try  to  make  other  people  have  a  good 
time  —  and  she  a  little  stranger  girl  who  didn't  know 
anybody  and  who  had  never  had  a  good  time  in  her 
life!" 

"  If  she  had  gone  to  the  party,  you  might  all  have  had 
the  fever,"  suggested  Chris  desperately. 

"  I  wish  we  had,  and  all  died  together,"  sobbed  Betty. 
"  She  looked  at  me  so  sor'ful !  " 


THE  CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL      205 

Those  words  remained  the  burden  of  her  cry.  She 
refused  supper  and  sobbed  herself  to  sleep,  to  awake  the 
next  morning  with  a  fresh  burst  of  grief ;  announcing 
her  intention  of  "  lying  there  till  she  died,"  she  turned 
away  from  even  the  luxury  of  breakfasting  in  bed,  for 
which  she  always  clamored  when  any  slight  ailment 
seemed  to  offer  the  pleasures  of  an  invalid. 

In  vain  Chris  proposed  a  ramble  through  the  shops 
in  town,  usually  the  most  enticing  prospect  that  could 
be  held  out.  Nan's  suggestion  of  stories  fell  on  deaf 
ears;  equally  in  vain  did  Lou  coax  and  cuddle,  and 
Bobby  bring  to  the  bedside  two  lovely  pink-eyed  white 
mice.  At  her  wits'  end,  and  fearing  that  the  child 
would  really  starve  herself  to  death,  Chris  sought  the 
advice  of  Dr.  Burnham.  Exhausted  with  crying,  an 
occasional  quivering  sob  shook  Betty  from  head  to  foot. 
At  the  sound  of  approaching  steps  she  buried  her  face 
more  deeply  in  the  pillow,  and  murmured  huskily,  — 

"  G'  way,  g'  way !     Leave  me  alone  to  die  !  " 

"  Betty  I "  said  a  quiet  voice  by  her  bedside. 

Though  unrecognizing,  something  in  the  tones  com 
pelled  attention,  and  Betty  blinked  one  eye  at  Dr.  Burn- 
ham,  who,  ostensibly  to  feel  her  pulse,  took  her  hand, 
and  holding  it  fast  within  his  own,  the  quivering  breath 
grew  calmer,  and  by  degrees  the  sobs  ceased. 

"  I  want  to  tell  you  about  your  little  friend,"  began 
the  doctor.  "  At  dusk,  Saturday  afternoon,  Lassie  did 
not  know  those  who  were  around  her.  She  thought  she 
was  still  at  school  and  that  she  was  going  to  a  party 


206  THE  CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL 

with  Betty.  There  was  a  bright  sash  beneath  her  pillow 
which  she  said  Betty  had  lent  her ;  throughout  her  ill 
ness  she  never  once  let  go  her  hold  of  the  sash.  She 
talked  to  it  and  stroked  it,  and  twisted  the  fringe  about 
her  fingers.  Once  her  mother  tried  to  take  it  away,  but 
Lassie  pleaded  so  piteously,  saying  she  could  not  go  to 
the  party  without  the  sash,  tied  in  a  big  bow,  as  Betty 
had  said,  that  none  could  have  had  the  heart  to  take  it 
from  her.  By  and  by  she  fell  asleep,  her  cheek  resting 
on  the  pretty  sash.  Toward  midnight  she  suddenly 
opened  her  eyes  and  looked  surprised  and  very  glad. 

"  *  Oh,  is  this  a  party  ? ' "  she  cried,  and  almost  instantly 
closed  her  eyes  again. 

"That  was  all." 

"  Did  she  wear  the  sash  when  she  went  to  Heaven  ?  " 
queried  Betty,  eagerly.  "  Maybe  she  'd  have  a  better 
tune,  you  know.  The  other  little  girls  wouldn't  — 
think  her  —  a  beggar-child  then,  would  they  ?  —  or  —  or 
turn  their  backs  upon  her?  " 

"I  am  sure  they  would  not,"  answered  the  doctor, 
with  grave  sympathy.  "  I  thought  you  would  wish  her 
to  keep  the  sash,"  he  went  on.  "  At  the  last  she  wore 
it,  tied  in  a  big  bow,  and  her  little  face  was  bright  and 
peaceful.  Now  you  are  to  go  to  sleep,  and  when  you 
awake,  you  will  want  something  to  eat." 

"Yes,"  answered  Betty,  mechanically,  but  speaking 
for  the  first  time  in  her  natural  voice. 

She  made  her  appearance  at  the  supper-table,  where 
she  displayed  a  ravenous  appetite,  and  even  vouchsafed 


THE   CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL  207 

a  watery  little  smile  to  Bobby's  unwonted  amenities. 
The  following  morning  she  went  to  school,  but  was  un 
naturally  quiet  and  subdued  for  many  days.  That 
month  she  attained  the  Banner  Row,  but  with  an  alarm 
ing  increase  of  conscience  she  only  sobbed,  — 

"'T  is  n't  because  I've  been  made  good,  dear  Miss 
Lang.  It 's  just  'cause  there  's  nobody  left  in  the  world 
to  talk  to  1 " 

Only  once,  in  those  early  weeks,  did  Betty  display 
something  of  her  wonted  spirit.  On  her  first  meeting 
with  Evangeline  the  latter  "tagged,"  with  a  swing  of 
her  skirts  more  assertive  than  ever.  Drawing  herself  up 
with  a  haughtiness  that  her  Puritan  ancestor  could  have 
no  more  than  equalled,  Betty  turned  upon  her  quondam 
friend,  and  said,  in  a  tone  loud  enough  to  be  heard  by 
every  one  in  the  schoolyard,  — 

"  I  thank  you,  if  you  please,  Miss  Bean ;  but  if  my 
friends  are  not  good  enough  for  you,  then  you  are  not 
good  enough  for  me  1 "  and  walked  away,  leaving  Evan 
geline  for  once  silenced. 

No  longer  upheld  by  the  most  popular  little  girl  in 
the  "Dudley  Primary,"  Evangeline  was  studiously 
avoided  by  every  one.  Even  her  not  over-fine  sensibil 
ities  were  not  proof  against  this  general  coldness,  her 
absences  became  more  and  more  frequent,  and  before  the 
end  of  the  term  her  attendance  ceased  altogether. 

The  trouble  in  the  "  Beyond  "  speedily  attained  a  seri 
ous  aspect.  The  city  authorities,  urged  by  Mr.  Cour- 
tenay's  powerful  influence,  took  stringent  measures 


208  THE  CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL 

of  relief.  Miss  Courtenay  proved  Dr.  Bumham's  most 
efficient  aid,  superintending  the  work  of  the  trained 
nurses  she  had  herself  installed,  while  the  Courtenay 
kitchen  and  hothouses  were  laid  under  unstinted  con 
tribution  for  the  supply  of  nourishing  food,  no  less  requi 
site  than  skilled  medical  aid.  But  notwithstanding 
every  exertion  the  fever  spread  with  increasing  viru 
lence,  till  it  assumed  the  character  of  an  epidemic,  and 
scarcely  a  day  passed  that  did  not  see  a  black  cortege 
wind  from  some  house  in  the  "  Beyond." 

To  Chris  those  unwonted  weeks  of  social  gayety  under 
the  chaperonage  of  Miss  Courtenay  would  doubtless 
have  had  their  inevitable  reaction,  but  combined  as  this 
condition  was  with  the  stinging  self-reproach  left  by 
Betty's  grief,  she  was  reduced  to  a  limp  and  nerveless 
condition  of  mind  and  body,  in  which  existence  seemed 
an  unprofitable  thing  indeed.  She  could  not  attain  the 
resolve  of  offering  her  assistance  in  the  settlement  work, 
sorely  though  she  knew  it  was  needed ;  any  qualms  of 
conscience  on  the  subject  being  speedily  silenced  by  the 
thought  that  she  did  not  want  to  see  poverty  or  unhap- 
piness,  —  she  had  enough  of  both  at  home.  The  days  were 
spent  in  wandering  about  the  house  like  an  unlaid  spirit, 
or  in  taking  long,  aimless  jaunts  into  the  city,  whence 
she  returned  more  restless  and  dissatisfied  than  ever. 

As  there  seemed  no  particular  object  in  getting  out  of 
bed,  her  morning  appearance  became  later  than  usual, 
with  something  more  than  the  customary  results.  One 
morning  after  a  particularly  sharp  passage  at  arms  with 


THE  CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL  209 

Nan,  she  sat  at  the  deserted  breakfast-table,  nibbling 
cold  toast  and  trying  to  sip  lukewarm  coffee.  Betty 
came  into  the  room,  to  ask  how  many  buttons  of  her 
coat  she  should  fasten,  —  an  inquiry  she  never  omitted. 
Moved  by  her  sister's  forlorn  aspect,  she  put  her  arms 
around  Chris's  neck,  and  whispered, — 

"  Never  mind  what  naughty  Nan  says,  Chrissy.  You 
are  the  head  of  the  table ! " 

Chris  pushed  her  plate  from  her.  Another  mouthful 
would  have  choked  her.  The  childish  words  seemed  to 
precipitate  all  the  partially  formed  thoughts  and  nebu 
lous  regrets  that  for  the  past  few  days  had  been  floating 
in  her  mind.  The  "  head  of  the  table  "  !  How,  indeed, 
had  she  filled  the  place?  By  the  utterance  of  those 
thoughtless  words  that  had  borne  her  little  sister  such 
bitter  fruit;  by  selfishly  pursuing  her  own  ends,  for 
getting  Dick  and  the  sacrifices  he  had  made  for  them 
these  many  years  ?  All  the  others  had  kept  true  to  the 
compact.  Even  heedless  Lou  had  scrupulously  put 
aside  every  cent  of  her  tiny  income.  Nan's  purse  must 
be  well  filled,  thought  the  girl,  with  a  twinge  of  jealous 
irritation.  Bobby's  mysterious  business  was  doubtless 
to  the  same  end.  Abandoning  all  her  magnificent 
schemes  of  achieving  wealth  at  a  bound,  Betty  had 
patiently  devoted  herself,  throughout  the  winter,  to 
picking  up  the  smallest  scraps  and  shreds  that  could  go 
to  the  rag-bag ;  creeping  about  on  her  hands  and  knees, 
after  any  dressmaking,  for  the  least  thread  that  might 
increase  her  store  and  insisting  upon  a  sale  whenever  a 

14 


210  THE   CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL 

corner  of  the  rag-bag  was  filled.  Chris  recalled,  remorse 
fully,  how  sharply  she  had  spoken  on  more  than  one 
occasion  when,  as  she  was  entertaining  callers  in  the 
drawing-room,  a  stentorian  voice  from  above  shouted, 
"Stop  that  ragman!"  followed  by  a  clatter  over  the 
stairs  as  of  a  cavalry  regiment  at  full  charge.  It  was  an 
inscrutable  mystery  why  Betty  should  invariably  be  on 
the  house-top  when  one  of  the  craft  came  in  sight.  Per 
haps,  like  Sister  Ann,  she  went  up  into  the  tower  to  lie 
in  wait  for  them. 

She  wondered  what  Nan  had  done  about  the  deficit 
in  the  winter's  income,  and  brought  to  mind,  for  the 
first  tune,  how  pale  and  harassed  her  sister  was  looking. 
The  insistent  words  rang  in  her  ears,  "  You  're  a  thief, 
Chris  Dudley,  that 's  what  you  are  I "  The  money  she 
had  appropriated  to  her  own  use,  insignificant  as  the 
amount  looked  at  the  tune,  now  seemed  a  colossal  sum. 
There  was  no  way  by  which  she  could  replace  it,  at  least 
before  Dick's  return,  for  art  needlework,  her  only 
resource,  was  slow  and  unremunerative  at  the  best ;  and 
it  was  now  the  dull  season.  Besides,  only  original 
designs  were  profitable,  and  under  existing  circum 
stances  she  could  not  ask  Nan's  aid.  All  at  once  a 
solution  of  the  question  flashed  upon  her.  Her  skill 
with  the  needle  might  perhaps  be  turned  to  account  in 
another  way.  Miss  Meg  had  casually  mentioned,  not 
long  before,  that  she  wanted  a  dressmaker  who  would 
come  to  the  house  to  make  Maud's  spring  frocks  and 
remodel  some  of  her  own  gowns.  The  idea  of  applying 


THE  CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL  211 

for  the  situation  had  been  at  the  time  as  far  from 
Chris's  mind  as  that  of  offering  herself  as  a  missionary 
to  China ;  but  the  longer  she  dwelt  upon  the  plan,  the 
more  feasible  did  it  appear. 

A  dressmaker  commanded  good  wages.  If  she  offered 
herself  for  the  —  situation  —  Chris  handled  the  word 
timorously  —  the  employment  would  last  a  month  at 
least,  and  in  that  time  she  could  surely  earn  enough  to 
replace  the  "  borrowed  "  money  and  perhaps  even  have  a 
little  surplus  to  devote  to  refurbishing  the  house. 

But  on  the  other  hand,  how  could  she  go,  a  paid 
dependant,  to  the  house  where  she  had  lately  been  a 
petted  guest?  Miss  Herbert  had  once  alluded,  in  her 
hearing,  to  somebody  who  looked  like  a  "little  dress 
maker."  Chris  fastened  a  pincushion  at  her  waist  and 
held  ostentatiously  in  her  hand  a  shabby  black  "reti 
cule  "  that  might  be  supposed  to  contain  patterns  and  a 
"  chart ; "  thus  arrayed,  she  surveyed  herself  critically  in 
the  glass  to  see  if  there  were  anything  in  her  appearance 
that  might  be  supposed  to  characterize  those  who  "go 
out  by  the  day." 

Miss  Herbert  would  turn  upon  her  that  cool,  critical 
gaze  and  be  more  scrupulously  polite  than  ever.  How 
she  would  sink  in  the  estimation  of  young  Mr.  Courte- 
nay,  who  would  probably  ask  her  to  mend  his  overcoat 
and  darn  his  gloves.  Did  the  Courtenays  allow  the 
dressmaker  to  come  to  the  table  with  the  family? 

That  afternoon,  in  response  to  a  somewhat  imperative 
pull  at  the  bell,  Chris  opened  the  door  herself. 


212      THE  CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL 

"  The  coal  man  has  come  for  the  bill,"  she  reported  to 
Nan.  "  He  said  it  was  the  third  time  he  had  called.  I 
should  think  you  would  be  ashamed  to  let  him  dun  us  1 " 
the  irritation  of  the  moment  getting  the  better  of  her 
half-formed  repentance. 

Nan  flushed,  but  vouchsafing  no  reply,  took  out  her 
own  shabby  little  leather  purse,  cherished  as  a  Christmas 
gift  of  long  ago  from  Chris.  The  sight  touched  some 
sensitive  chord  in  the  elder  girl's  heart,  and  adding 
another  item  to  the  list  of  her  self-reproaches,  gave  the 
crowning  touch  to  resolve.  At  dusk,  summoning  all 
her  courage,  she  slipped  across  the  street. 

Miss  Meg  had  just  returned  from  the  "  Beyond  "  and 
was  in  the  library.  Whether  because  of  her  friend's 
smile  and  outstretched  hand,  or  because  it  was  the  hour 
that  invited  confidences,  Chris  forgot  the  tactful  way  in 
which  she  had  intended  to  lead  up  to  the  subject;  simply 
and  directly  she  made  known  her  request. 

"  I  think  I  could  satisfy  you,"  she  added ;  "  I  have 
always  made  my  own  gowns  and  Betty's  frocks." 

The  proposal  was  received  with  a  warmth  that  left  no 
doubt  as  to  its  acceptability.  The  question  of  remunera 
tion,  too,  was  soon  settled,  although  its  amount  was  so 
far  beyond  Chris's  expectations  as  to  draw  forth  a 
protest. 

"  I  am  sure  your  help  will  be  worth  all  that,"  smiled 
Miss  Meg.  "  It  will  be  a  great  relief  to  me  to  leave  the 
matter  in  your  hands,"  she  added,  with  a  confidence  that 
made  the  girl  feel  as  though  the  inspiration  of  Worth 


THE   CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL  213 

glowed  within  her.  "  The  trouble  in  the  settlement  will 
occupy  most  of  my  time  for  some  weeks  to  come,"  she 
added  gravely. 

"  I  wish  I  could  be  like  you !  "  exclaimed  Chris,  with  a 
little  irrepressible  burst  of  girlish  enthusiasm. 

Just  then  the  fire  flashed  out  a  single  gleam,  lighting 
the  picture  of  Lady  Katharine  Douglas  above  the  man 
tel,  to  which  Miss  Meg's  eyes  were  uplifted.  In  that 
space  Chris  seemed  to  catch  a  glimpse  of  something  so 
true  and  sweet  and  high  that  in  its  mere  presence  her 
own  life  was  mysteriously  touched  to  finer  issues. 

"  Dear,"  whispered  Miss  Meg,  "  one  may  still  give  her 
right  arm  to  the  King  in  loyal,  loving  service  1 " 


214  THE   CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL 


CHAPTER  TWENTY 

NAN  was  giving  the  last  touches  to  a  drawing 
upon  which  she  had  been  at  work  for  weeks 
past,  in  such  intervals  of  ardor  as  was  permitted  by 
her  disturbed  condition  of  mind.  Sometimes,  indeed, 
it  almost  seemed  to  the  girl  that  out  of  the  very  ful 
ness  of  her  need  for  help  and  sympathy  was  the  con 
ception  born.  She  was  goaded,  now,  not  only  by  her 
usual  finishing  devil,  but  by  the  knowledge  that  the 
hours  in  which  she  could  complete  her  work  were  num 
bered.  Close  at  hand  lay  a  copy  of  the  Connoisseur 
open  at  an  announcement  at  which  the  artist  glanced 
ever  and  anon  for  inspiration,  — 

"The  Connoisseur  offers  a  prize  of  One  Hundred 
Dollars  for  the  best  design  for  an  Easter  card."  Cer 
tain  restrictions  and  specifications  followed,  concluding 
with  the  words,  "All  designs  must  be  sent  in  before 
the  first  of  March." 

"  If  I  should  get  it ! "  thought  Nan,  leaning  back  in 
her  chair  for  a  moment's  well-earned  rest,  in  which  she 
drew  up  a  mental  list  of  the  uses  to  which  that  elastic 
one  hundred  dollars  should  be  put. 

"  Nan  —  Na — an !  "  called  Bobby's  voice,  from  below. 

"Oh  dear,  another  interruption  1 "  thought  Nan,  Sti 
rling  the  impulse  to  disregard  the  call  or  return  an 


THE  CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL  215 

impatient  answer,  and  shuffling  her  work  out  of  sight  be 
neath  the  confusion  of  watercolor  blocks,  papers,  stumps, 
charcoal  sticks,  and  smudgy  rags  on  the  table. 

Bobby  ran  up  the  attic  stairs,  two  at  a  time,  singing 
"  Nancy  Lee "  at  the  top  of  his  voice. 

"  If  you  would  couch  your  admiration  in  prose  and  in 
a  lower  key,  it  would  be  just  as  acceptable,"  suggested 
Nan  mildly,  as  her  little  brother  blocked  the  door  with 
a  voluminous  pile  of  papers  in  his  hand,  and  the  words 
spoken  with  simulated  indifference, — 

"  Want  to  hear  my  plea  ?  " 

"  Of  course  I  do,"  answered  Nan,  heartily,  and  pre 
pared  to  give  all  attention  to  the  orator  as  he  mounted 
an  impromptu  rostrum,  constructed  out  of  a  big  Japanned 
tray  —  whereof  most  of  the  Japan  had  vanished  —  laid 
across  an  empty  soap-box. 

The  Holbrook  Debating  Club  was  to  hold  its  open 
meeting  to-night.  The  occasion  was  not  only  a  notable 
event  of  the  school  year,  but  it  was  regarded  by  Hol 
brook  at  large  as  a  social  function  of  the  first  magnitude. 
Local  pride  was  aroused,  for  the  Debating  Club  was 
almost  coeval  with  the  Holbrook  High  School,  and  that, 
as  every  one  knew,  was  the  oldest  endowed  school  in 
New  Engknd.  Tickets  to  the  debate  were  sold  by 
subscription;  the  committee  included  the  most  distin 
guished  names  in  the  town  and  there  was  an  imposing 
list  of  patronesses,  who  came  on  the  great  night  in  gala 
attire  laden  with  bouquets  for  the  favored  orators. 
Following  the  debate,  every  one  present  voted  upon  the 


216  THE   CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL 

merits  of  the  question  under  discussion.  "Which  side 
are  you  on  ?  "  was  a  query  that  was  heard  on  every  side, 
among  the  old  boys  on.  the  early  train,  as  well  as  at 
social  functions  of  afternoon  and  evening. 

This  year  the  question  was,  "  Resolved,  Our  Country 
is  too  Free."  The  affirmative  side  was  upheld  by  Bobby 
and  Taffy  Dabney.  Probably  the  latter's  unpopularity 
would  have  lost  him  the  position  but  for  the  stand  taken 
by  Bobby. 

"He's  the  best  fellow  for  the  place,"  insisted  the 
latter,  regardless  of  personal  animosities.  "We're  not 
going  to  risk  our  cause,  are  we,  because  we  're  down  on 
a  fellow  for  something  that  doesn't  affect  the  present 
issue  ?  " 

Somehow,  despite  the  fact  that  Bobby  had  almost 
vanished  from  their  midst,  his  influence  among  his 
mates  was  greater  than  ever,  and  his  voice  now  carried 
the  day. 

"I  say,  Bobby,  that  was  dandy  of  you,"  said  Taffy, 
almost  humbly. 

"  Keep  the  change,"  returned  Bobby,  with  a  magnifi 
cent  bow  and  turning  his  back  upon  his  "honorable 
colleague." 

Jack  Burnham  and  Lucy  were  on  the  negative  side ; 
the  latter,  spurred  to  unwonted  endeavor,  covered  sheet 
after  sheet  with  flowery  eloquence,  to  the  end  of  rein 
stating  himself  in  the  good  graces  of  his  little  sweet 
heart  and  incidentally  of  "preserving  the  liberties  of 
our  country." 


THE   CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL  217 

The  girls  meantime,  besides  their  partisanship  in  the 
debate,  had  their  own  side  issues.  They  were  all  heartily 
tired  of  the  feud  —  at  first  exciting  —  between  them 
selves  and  the  boys,  but  were  not  sufficiently  versed 
in  worldly  tactics  to  know  how  to  make  up  without 
loss  of  dignity. 

"It's  stupid  dancing  with  girls  for  partners,"  said 
Susie  Grossman,  dejectedly ;  "  we  've  lost  the  skating 
and  tobogganing  too.  I  really  think,  girls,  we  can  afford 
to  be  magnanimous,"  brightening  as  she  thought  how 
nobly  the  feminine  contingent  of  the  Holbrook  High 
School  had  vindicated  itself.  For  the  Spinster  had 
proved  a  success,  although  some  of  its  constituency  were 
openly  suggesting  that  a  masculine  department  would 
be  acceptable. 

Wisely  taking  their  mothers  into  their  councils,  the 
debate  was  suggested  as  an  occasion  when  a  friendly 
interest  in  the  boys'  affairs  might  express  gracefully 
a  desire  for  renewed  good  feeling. 

"  Of  course  I  shall  vote  for  you,  my  darling  Robin," 
said  Lou,  when  Bobby  would  have  explained  the  question 
to  her.  "So  you  need  not  trouble  to  make  me  under 
stand  what  it  is  all  about.  If  you  would  like  to  say 
that  Voodooism  —  whatever  that  may  be  —  is  the  best 
form  of  government,  you  shall  have  my  vote,  one  and 
indivisible,  survive  or  perish  1  I  guess  I  could  n't  think 
all  winter  about  Dick  and  forget  my  own  precious  little 
brother  at  home.  Besides,  you  don't  suppose  I  'd  vote 
for  a  horrid  boy  who  —  "  Lou  bit  back  the  words,  as  she 


218  THE   CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL 

had  done  similar  ones  many  times  the  past  months,  and 
contented  herself  with  adding,  "I'll  vote  with  both 
hands  —  stuff  the  ballot-box — that's  the  phrase,  isn't 
it  ? — if  I  get  the  chance.  But  oh,  Bobby,  I  do  think  that 
if  Taffy  were  not  quite  so  fat,  he  'd  have  more  votes  from 
the  girls.  You  will  wear  your  hair  banged,  won't  you, 
Robin  love?  It's  awfully  fetching,  and  it  doesn't 
make  you  look  a  bit  sissy,  truly." 

To  which  petition  the  future  legislator  responded, 
with  a  keenness  and  brevity  that  would  doubtless  win 
many  a  future  forensic  triumph, — 

"Rubbish!" 

Nan,  on  the  contrary,  had  stoutly  maintained  the 
opposite  side  of  the  question.  For  days  past  she  and 
Bobby  had  not  met  without  launching  upon  the  vexed 
subject,  till  the  others  begged  them  to  confine  their  dis 
cussions  to  the  studio.  There  the  battle  waged  high, 
neither  party  yielding  a  point,  and  when  breath  failed, 
proceeding  to  settle  the  question  by  single  combat,  with 
swords  fashioned  out  of  broomsticks.  Bobby  had  written 
and  re-written,  revised  and  polished  his  plea,  spurred 
to  further  researches,  or  even  to  the  recasting  of  an 
entire  line  of  argument  by  one  of  these  discussions. 

He  had  just  finished  copying  his  speech  for  the  last 
time. 

The  argument  was  compact  and  well  sustained,  the 
illustrations  were  few  and  apt,  and  the  orator's  gestures 
spare,  partly  by  reason  of  a  careful  study  of  effect  and 
partly  because  his  present  rostrum  was  not  calculated  to 


THE  CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL  219 

bear  the  gesticulations  of  fiery  eloquence;  till  at  the 
climax  he  made  an  unwary  movement  and  with  a  wild 
swoop  of  his  arms  was  precipitated  to  the  floor,  with  a 
bang  and  clatter  that  hopefully  prefigured  the  plaudits 
of  the  nations. 

"It's  perfectly  splendid,  Bobby!"  cried  Nan,  when 
she  could  speak  for  laughter.  "  I  'm  not  convinced,  but 
I  know  you  '11  get  the  verdict ;  and  oh,  Bobby  when  you 
knit  your  brows  and  put  out  your  hand  like  that,  you 
look  just  like  the  picture  of  Daniel  Webster  in  the 
Athenaeum." 

Eulogy  could  strike  no  higher  note,  and  Bobby, 
though  scorning  to  betray  his  gratification,  nor  the 
fact  that  he  had  spent  hours  before  the  glass  posing  in 
the  characteristic  attitude  of  the  great  statesman,  allowed 
a  smile  to  cross  his  face,  as  he  responded,  — 

"  Now  let 's  say  4  Horatius  I ' "  and  off  the  two  started 
on  the  stirring  "  Lay,"  Bobby  sounding  a  tocsin  on  the 
tray  as  an  accompaniment  to  his  favorite  lines,  — 

" '  When  none  were  for  a  party, 
And  all  were  for  the  state  I '" 

The  great  evening  came.  The  hall  of  the  schoolhouse 
was  filled  to  its  utmost  capacity.  The  Senior  class  had 
been  given  a  place  on  the  platform,  and  were  buzzing 
confidentially  among  themselves.  Heedful  of  the  ex 
citement  among  the  boys,  the  dignified  old  head 
master  admonished  them  that  they  were  gentlemen  and 
he  expected  them  to  behave  as  such.  The  violent 


220  THE   CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL 

demonstrations  of  the  ball-field  would  be  out  of  place  on 
the  present  occasion. 

Chris,  Nan,  Lou,  and  Betty  had  secured  seats  in  the 
front  row ;  while  Miss  Meg,  who  was  one  of  the  patron 
esses,  smiled  her  interest  and  sympathy  close  by. 
Early  in  the  evening  four  choice  bouquets,  with  a  card 
attached  to  each,  had  arrived  from  the  Courtenay 
hothouses.  Betty  nearly  sniffed  her  violets  to  pieces 
with  mingled  rapture  and  excitement. 

The  audience  settled  itself  to  attention  as  Lucy  ap 
peared  on  the  platform.  He  acquitted  himself  admira 
bly  and  sat  down  amid  a  storm  of  applause,  the 
conviction  that  he  had  won  the  case  for  his  side,  and, 
best  of  all,  a  bunch  of  red  and  white  carnations  from 
Susie,  who  had  been  wavering  between  a  lingering  fond 
ness  for  the  leading  affirmative  and  a  conviction  of 
wasted  affections  in  that  direction.  As  the  little  speaker 
labored  with  his  big  words  and  grandiloquent  gestures, 
she  remembered,  all  at  once,  how  unfailing  had  been  his 
admiration  of  her  own  literary  efforts,  and  how  untir 
ingly  he  had  fought  innumerable  battles  hi  her  behalf. 
So,  with  a  beaming  smile  that  betokened  unmistakably 
the  renewal  of  good  feeling,  she  bestowed  her  posy  upon 
him. 

Taffy  Dabney  now  arose  for  the  affirmative ;  anxious 
to  retrieve  himself  in  the  estimation  of  his  fellows,  he 
had  done  his  honest  best ;  but  though  his  argument  was 
well  conceived  and  couched  in  excellent  English,  it  fell 
short  of  its  effect  by  reason  of  the  orator's  defective 


THE   CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL  221 

delivery  and  clumsy  figure.  In  the  intermission  that 
followed,  the  opinion  was  generally  expressed  that  thus 
far  the  negative  side  had  shown  itself  the  stronger. 
The  audience  turned  toward  Jack  Burnham  with  an 
interest  that  betrayed  its  realization  of  the  fact  that  the 
real  significance  of  the  contest  was  now  before  them. 

With  the  glowing  words  of  the  speaker,  it  was  invol 
untarily  felt  that  such  generous  sentiments  accorded 
best  with  youth.  There  was  a  genuine  heart-throb 
among  the  audience  as  Jack,  with  a  gesture  toward 
the  flag  that  draped  the  back  of  the  platform,  turned  to 
his  mates  with  the  closing  words,  — 

"  Shall  the  stars  and  stripes  lose  the  meaning  that  has 
made  them,  the  world  over,  the  synonym  for  liberty? 
Shall  ours  be  the  stigma,  — '  In  that  day  and  generation 
America  ceased  to  be  —  sanctuary !  " 

Then  came  Bobby's  turn.  As  he  stepped  upon  the 
platform,  there  was  an  instant's  hush,  followed  by  an 
involuntary  murmur  of  admiration  at  the  boy's  superb 
figure  and  handsome,  earnest  face.  Taken  by  surprise, 
Bobby  stood  vainly  searching  for  the  first  line  of  his 
speech,  while  the  audience,  perceiving  his  embarrass 
ment,  gave  another  encouraging  round  that  only  suc 
ceeded  in  completing  the  orator's  bewilderment.  The 
silence  had  become  painful  when  Bobby,  catching  sight 
of  Nan's  pale,  frightened  face,  seized  upon  the  thought, 

"  I  '11  think  I  'm  in  the  studio  again,  and  that  she  's 
going  to  say,  '  It's  perfectly  splendid,  Bobby  I ' " 

So,  keeping  his  eyes  fixed  upon  the  one  face,  address- 


222  THE   CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL 

ing  the  one  person  out  of  all  the  audience,  the  spell  was 
broken,  and  once  launched  upon  his  theme,  he  forgot 
everything  but  that  he  was  there  to  win  men's  minds 
and  hearts  to  larger  thought  and  sounder  sentiment. 

As  he  dwelt  on  the  race  to  office  of  those  who  forgot 
friendship,  principle,  honor,  in  the  mad  desire  to  win  the 
highest  place,  there  was  more  than  schoolboy  rhetoric,  — 
there  was  the  depth  and  passion  of  personal  experience 
in  his  words ;  his  voice  rang  with  the  spirit  of  the 
gallant,  uncompromising  old  Puritan  Governor,  and  he 
spoke  as  one  who  felt  himself  the  chosen  champion  of 
that  heritage  of  truth  and  honor  and  unswerving  devo 
tion  to  an  ideal  that  made  the  Puritan  Commonwealth 
what  it  was.  But  to  Bobby  himself,  still  seeking  Nan's 
face,  it  was  the  dear  home  life,  mysteriously  inter- 
wrought  with  the  great  life  of  the  nation,  that  throbbed 
in  his  closing  words,  — 

"  «  When  none  were  for  a  party, 
And  all  were  for  the  state  ! ' " 

He  took  his  seat  without  applause ;  only  no  one 
noticed  its  absence.  The  silence  remained  unbroken 
as  the  committee,  consisting  of  Dr.  Burnham,  Mr. 
Dabney,  and  Judge  Luce,  retired  to  count  the  votes.  A 
nervous  restlessness  pervaded  the  assembly ;  the  tension 
was  too  great  to  admit  of  talking,  and  there  was  an 
audible  sigh  of  relief  when  Judge  Luce  appeared  on 
the  platform,  holding  a  slip  of  paper,  from  which  he 
read, — 

"Number  of  votes,   four   hundred  and   sixty-three. 


THE  CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL  223 

Necessary  to  a  choice,  two  hundred  and  thirty-two. 
Negative,  thirty-seven.  Affirmative  —  " 

The  report  was  cut  short  in  an  unlooked-for  manner. 
Mr.  Shattuck  started  into  the  aisle,  and  gave  the  Hoi- 
brook  yell ! 

It  was  the  signal  for  such  a  tumult  as  had  never 
before  been  known,  even  on  the  victorious  ball-field. 

"What's  the  matter  with  Bobby!  He's  — all- 
right  I  Who's  —  all — right?  Bobby  I  Rah,  rah,  rah, 
st,  boom,  tiger!  .SbZ-brookl  Bobby!" 

There  was  a  simultaneous  rush  for  the  platform,  and 
Bobby  disappeared  from  view,  to  be  lifted  high,  the  next 
instant,  upon  the  shoulders  of  his  companions.  A  hand 
shaking  followed  that  made  even  the  orator's  practised 
biceps  ache.  Lucy,  contentedly  sniffing  his  posy, 
strutted  around  the  hero  of  the  hour,  admiring  him 
from  every  point  of  view,  and  rejoicing  far  more  in 
Bobby's  victory  than  he  would  have  done  in  his  own. 

The  glow  and  excitement  had  left  Bobby's  face  as  he 
broke  at  last  from  his  rejoicing  mates  and  ran  down 
stairs  to  the  dressing-room.  At  the  very  climax  of  a 
triumph  greater  than  any  of  which  he  had  dreamt,  he 
had  caught  sight  of  Jack  Burnham's  face  on  the  edge 
of  the  crowd. 

What  mattered  the  shouts  of  the  multitude  when 
Jack's  voice  was  not  heard?  What  did  he  care  to  be 
borne  aloft  before  all  Holbrook  when  it  was  not  Jack's 
shoulder  that  upheld  him  ?  Of  what  value  were  these 
grips  on  every  side,  when  Jack's  hand  was  not  first  to 


224  THE   CAPTAIN  OF  THE   SCHOOL 

clasp  his  own?  In  all  the  sea  of  admiring  faces  turned 
toward  him,  Bobby  saw  only  Jack  Burnham's.  Not 
frightened,  nor  resentful,  nor  even  evasive,  as  it  had 
been  through  the  alienated  months  of  the  winter,  but 
sorry  and  wistful  and  full  of  a  pleading  that  could  not 
be  misunderstood. 

Some  one  was  standing  on  the  threshold  of  the 
dressing-room,  —  some  one  who  was  twirling  in  his 
hands  a  cap  upon  which  was  the  glittering  insignia  of 
its  owner's  rank. 

The  two  boys  looked  at  each  other  hi  dead  silence. 
Bobby  held  out  his  hand. 

"  Jack,  old  boy !  " 

"Bobby,  old  fellow!" 


THE   CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL  225 


CHAPTER  TWENTY-ONE 

THE  others  had  gone  to  bed,  but  Nan  could  not 
defer  congratulations  till  the  morning  and  waited 
in  the  chill  sitting-room  for  Bobby's  footsteps.  The 
last  notes  of  "  Comrades"  —  whistled  in  duet  —  died 
away,  and  she  turned  an  eager  face  toward  the  door. 

"  I  voted  for  you,  Bobby,  after  all,"  she  cried.  "  Of 
course  I  would  n't  have  voted  against  you,  whatever  I 
thought,  but  I  had  no  idea  of  going  over  to  your 
side  till  after  your  speech.  When  you  are  up  for 
Governor  of  Massachusetts,  I  shall  cast  my  vote  for 
you,  no  matter  what  your  platform  is  —  even  if  it 's 
as  rickety  as  an  old  tin  tray.  Oh,  Bobby,  I  was  so 
proud  of  you  1 " 

She  was  in  jubilant  spirits.  Bobby  knew  that  none 
other  of  his  sisters  could  enter  into  his  triumph  as  Nan 
could.  Boon  companions  though  he  and  Lou  were, 
there  were  subjects  upon  which  he  never  touched  with 
her.  But  he  always  felt,  instinctively,  that  Nan  would 
understand,  in  those  rare  moments  when  mind  and  soul 
outstripped  his  years  and  he  thought  and  felt  as  one 
who  had  put  away  childish  things. 

Too  full  of  pride  and  rejoicing  to  note  the  unusual 
quiet  of  her  little  brother's  mood,  Nan  began  repeating 
the  compliments  of  the  evening. 

15 


226  THE   CAPTAIN  OF  THE   SCHOOL 

"  Mr.  Dabney  said  he  was  proud  of  you,  and  declared 
your  speech  was  the  finest  that  had  ever  been  delivered 
in  that  hall,  and  that  it  would  do  credit  to  a  trained 
advocate.  Judge  Luce  said,  '  Our  young  men  of  family 
are  sorely  needed  in  the  public  life  of  to-day.  Bobby 
does  credit  to  his  inheritance  of  principle  and  intellect. 
Holbrook  will  some  day  be  proud  of  Bobby.'  Think  of 
that,  from  Judge  Luce!  Dr.  Burnham  shook  hands 
with  us  all  —  Betty  insisted  on  shaking  hands  twice  — 
and  his  face  glowed !  Mr.  Shattuck  —  was  n't  it  funny, 
his  giving  that  yell  1 "  ran  on  Nan,  breathlessly  —  "  said, 
in  such  a  tone,  '  I  congratulate  you ! ' 

"  Nan,  I  suppose  you  '11  think  I  'm  off  my  base," 
began  Bobby,  in  a  dry,  husky  voice ;  "  but  the  fact  is, 
I  'm  in  doubt  as  to  whether  I  shall  go  in  for  the  law, 
after  all  1" 

"Why,  what  do  you  mean  —  what  else  could  you 
do?"  exclaimed  his  sister,  incredulously.  "Are  you 
afraid  of  making  a  failure  of  it  —  after  to-night?" 
The  echo  of  the  evening's  triumph  was  in  her  laugh. 

"  Of  course  not,"  returned  Bobby,  superbly.  "  It 
isn't  from  lack  of  nerve,"  he  went  on  slowly,  "nor 
because"  —  more  slowly  still — "because  I  don't  care 
for  the  distinction  that,  more  than  any  other,  the  legal 
profession  confers." 

"  You  've  meant  to  be  a  lawyer  before  you  could  even 
speak  plain,"  went  on  his  sister,  in  amazement.  "  Don't 
you  remember  your  oration  on  4  Murder '  when  you  were 
in  kilts,  after  you  'd  been  reading  Webster's  argument  in 


THE  CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL  227 

the  White  case  —  how  scared  Lou  was,  and  how  Nurse 
Ransom  came  tearing  to  the  nursery  when  she  heard 
you  cry  *  Murder ! '  expecting  to  find  us  all  in  a  bloody 
row,  like  the  King's  daughters  in  « Hop-o-my-Thumb '  ? 
Have  you  forgotten  how  you've  learnt  Webster's 
speeches  by  heart  and  would  never  declaim  anything 
else  in  school,  and  have  quoted  him  and  sworn  by  him 
on  every  occasion,  till  we  've  sometimes  wished  Webster 
had  never  been  born.  You've  always  said  that  the 
bar  was  the  most  direct  path  to  public  life  1 " 

Bobby  did  not  answer  immediately. 

"  There 's  such  a  thundering  lot  of  lawyers,"  he  said, 
at  length,  with  averted  face. 

"  It  was  Daniel  Webster  who  said,  *  There  's  always 
room  at-  the  top ! ' "  answered  Nan,  in  a  choked  voice. 
"  Are  you  forgetting  —  Daniel  Webster?  " 

"  I  should  be  ready  for  college  this  fall,"  said  Bobby, 
jerkily.  "  It  would  be  a  pull  to  go  through,  although, 
of  course,  I  should  help  myself."  He  threw  back  his 
broad  shoulders  with  a  gesture  that  held,  perhaps,  a 
little  too  much  of  self-confidence.  "But  I  could  not 
hope  to  earn  much  money  the  first  year,  before  I  had 
learnt  the  ropes.  Even  after  I  had  been  admitted  to 
the  bar,  some  time  would  necessarily  elapse  before  I 
could  make  even  a  bare  living  at  my  profession.  All 
these  years  I  should  be  pulling  on  somebody,  for  it 
would  be  impossible  to  earn  an  adequate  income,  mean 
time,  from  other  sources;  the  Law  is  a  mistress  who 
will  not  tolerate  divided  attention.  Lucy's  dad  says  that 


228  THE  CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL 

old  Shattuck  was  regarded  as  the  one  man  of  his  class 
who  was  sure  to  make  his  mark,  and  look  at  him  now  I " 

Bobby  spoke  with  a  grasp  and  succinctness  that  be 
trayed  it  was  not  the  first  tune  he  had  thus  reviewed 
the  situation. 

"  We  'd  all  help !  "  said  Nan,  tremulously. 

"That  would  be  the  worst  of  the  rub,"  returned 
Bobby  sturdily.  "  Dick  has  enough  on  his  shoulders, 
as  it  is.  Pinching  and  scraping  at  home  might  keep  me 
at  Harvard,  but  how  would  it  be  with  the  rest  of  you  ? 
Maybe  I  've  learnt  a  thing  or  two  this  winter,"  he  added 
soberly. 

"It  would  be  such  a  disappointment  to  us  all," 
pleaded  his  sister.  "Truly,  Bobby,  I'd  be  willing  to 
work  my  fingers  to  the  bone  and  live  on  bread  and 
water  —  I  'd  give  up  gladly  all  idea  of  studying  art  or 
going  abroad,  to  see  you  what  you  were  meant  to  be, — 
what  you  should  be  by  right  of  inheritance  as  well  as 
of  inborn  talent,  — '  Robert  Dudley,  By  the  grace  of  God 
Governor  of  Massachusetts.' " 

Bobby  winced.  Involuntarily  his  eyes  were  raised  to 
the  portrait  of  Thomas  Dudley  on  the  opposite  wall. 
The  face  of  the  old  Puritan  Governor  was  unmistakably 
that  of  a  man  in  whom  love  of  power  was  dominant. 
But  whatever  his  errors  of  passion  or  of  judgment,  in 
whatever  age  or  land  he  had  lived,  to  proud  old  Thomas 
Dudley  the  words  "  party  politics  "  could  have  had  no 
meaning. 

"  I  Ve  something  to  tell  you,  Nan,  if  you  'd  care  to 


THE   CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL  229 

hear,"  said  Bobby,  with   a  watchful  eye  on  his  sister's 
expressive  face. 

"  I  '11  listen,"  answered  Nan,  with  a  kind  of  snort  that 
betokened  scant  toleration  for  further  confidences  of  a 
nature  like  those  that  had  preceded. 

"Lucy  begged  his  dad  to  let  him  tell  me/' began 
Bobby,  slowly.  "It  was  hatched  out  between  Judge 
Luce  and  Mr.  Shattuck ;  you  know  he  and  Lucy's  dad 
are  old  cronies.  Lucy  said  his  father  found  him  with 
the  new  issue  of  the  SnarTc,  and  Lucy  told  him  that  I  'd 
been  the  whole  team.  His  dad  walked  off  with  the 
paper  and  read  every  word  of  it  1 "  Bobby  could  not 
keep  the  triumph  out  of  his  voice.  "  Lucy  told  him 
the  whole  row,  and  afterwards  —  well,"  added  Bobby, 
modestly,  "  that  is  about  all  there  is  to  it.  To-night, 
after  the  debate,  the  two  immense  old  fellows  put  their 
heads  together,  and  —  Judge  Luce  has  offered  to  pay 
my  expenses  through  Harvard  and  the  Law  School  1 " 

Nan  was  sitting  bolt  upright,  with  sparkling  eyes. 

"  Oh,  Bobby  I  "  was  all  she  could  say. 

"  If  I  accept,"  added  her  brother,  "  I  am  to  take  the 
entrance  exams,  with  Jack  and  Lucy  and  the  other  fel 
lows.  We  should  go  through  college,  as  we  have  gone 
through  school,  together." 

"  If  you  accept,"  repeated  Nan,  with  an  incredulous 
laugh.  "  I  should  n't  think  it  would  take  you  long  to 
decide." 

"I  did  think,  for  a  moment,  that  it  was  my  luck," 
said  Bobby,  whose  self-confidence  not  infrequently  took 


230  THE   CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL 

the  form  of  belief  in  a  lucky  star.  "But  I  haven't 
decided  yet." 

"  If  you  prefer  a  business  career,  you  might  go  into 
partnership  with  Griff,"  suggested  Nan,  with  a  disagree 
able  laugh.  "Is  that  the  opportunity  you  are  pining 
for,  instead  of  the  law?" 

"Yes,  I  had  some  thought  of  going  into  business," 
answered  Bobby,  jerkily.  "Mr.  Courtenay  has  offered 
me  a  steady  job.  If  I  take  up  with  his  offer,  I  am  to 
begin  work  as  soon  as  school  closes,  and  learn  the  busi 
ness  from  the  start.  After  all,"  he  went  on,  plead 
ingly,  as  Nan's  eyes  filled  with  tears  that  were  rare 
indeed,  "it  is  not  as  though  I  meant  to  give  up  the 
thought  of  public  life.  You  know  that  I  have  regarded 
the  law  rather  as  a  means  to  an  end  than  as  the  end 
itself.  He  said,  'Boston  should  send  commercial  men 
to  Congress ! '  " 

"  He  probably  said  it  as  a  pretty  speech  to  the  solid 
men  of  Boston  after  they  had  made  up  another  purse  to 
pay  his  everlasting  debts,"  retorted  Nan.  "  If  you  don't 
go  to  college,  all  I  can  say  is  that  it 's  the  worst  thing 
that  has  happened  this  winter.  Colonel  Jerome  has 
proved  a  worse  bugaboo  than  our  old  spectre,  the 
Female  Relative !  "  Without  waiting  for  a  reply,  with 
a  gesture  that  indicated  she  washed  her  hands  of  Bobby 
and  his  affairs,  Nan  hastened  from  the  room. 

Bobby  went  to  his  den  with  the  all-important  question 
weighing  heavily  upon  him.  It  was  not  alone  because 
of  the  approaching  examinations  that  he  felt  he  must 


THE   CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL  231 

decide  his  future  career  before  he  slept.  He  had  in 
truth  reached  the  "  parting  of  the  ways  "  to  which  each, 
sooner  or  later,  must  come.  His  thoughts  went  back  to 
the  hour  on  the  parade  ground  when  he  had  saluted  the 
false  captain.  Afterwards,  when  the  glow  of  generous 
impulse  had  been  replaced  by  the  dull,  unrequited  strain 
of  every-day  endeavor,  he  had  guarded  well  the  secret  of 
Jack's  perfidy,  and  in  such  magnanimity  he  thought  he 
had  done  well.  But  since  that  never  to  be  forgotten 
hour  there  had  been  other  acts  of  self-abnegation,  new 
thought  for  others ;  in  his  manful  struggle  for  indepen 
dence  had  come  a  strengthening  and  a  tempering  of  the 
fine  metal  of  his  character,  so  that,  unconsciously  to 
himself,  the  boy  who  that  hour  had  cksped  Jack  Burn- 
ham's  hand  in  full  forgiveness  and  forgetfulness  was  on 
a  higher  plane  than  that  on  which  he  had  stood  a  few 
short  months  before. 

He  stood  looking  at  the  chair  that  had  been  Daniel 
Webster's,  of  which  he  had  made  a  very  fetich,  held 
from  seating  himself  therein  by  a  strange  feeling  that  in 
some  way  the  act  involved  his  entire  future.  From  his 
very  cradle  the  impelling  impulse  of  his  life  had  been  to 

"  Learn  his  great  language,  catch  his  clear  accents, 
Make  him  his  pattern  to  live  and  to  die  1 " 

Could  it  be  that  for  the  first  tune  the  thought  of 
Webster  held  for  him  no  illuminating  impulse,  no 
inspiring  example? 

In  involuntary  mental  review,  the  great  life  passed 


232  THE  CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL 

before  him.  Of  all  the  attributes  that  make  for  power, 
what  lacked  this  royal  man?  Yet  when  the  issue  came 
on  which  turned  the  crowning  ambition  of  his  life,  men 
refused  their  trust  to  the  greatest  statesman  of  his  day, 
and  Daniel  Webster  died  a  disappointed  and  embittered 
man. 

In  his  petted  boyhood  how  calmly  he  had  accepted 
the  sacrifices  of  all  around  him,  as  though  by  right 
divine  of  his  fivefold  talent  1  His  education  was  ob 
tained  at  the  supreme  cost  of  another.  Throughout  his 
towering  manhood,  when  he  was  a  nation's  idol,  still  the 
keynote  of  his  life  was  self,  till  the  zenith  of  his  intel 
lectual  strength  was  the  nadir  of  his  moral  weakness, 
and  the  Seventh  of  March  speech  struck  the  knell  of 
Daniel  Webster's  better  fame. 

With  the  clairvoyance  that  comes  in  some  supreme 
moments,  the  boy  read  his  own  possible  future  in  the 
light  of  his  shattered  idol.  He  sank  into  what  was  truly 
his  "  Siege  Perilous,"  —  the  seat  of  Daniel  Webster,  — 
crying  in  his  boyish  heart,  as  did  Galahad  of  old,  — 

"  *  If  I  lose  myself,  I  save  myself  1 '  " 


THE  CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL  233 


CHAPTER  TWENTY-TWO 

CHRIS  had  merely  said,  regarding  the  coming  weeks, 
that  she  was  to  "help  Miss  Meg."  As  she  had 
"  helped  "  in  so  many  of  their  neighbor's  pleasant  plans, 
no  suspicion  was  attached  to  this  announcement,  even 
by  her  vigilant  family,  the  only  comment  being  the 
inquiry  from  Nan,  "Shall  I  send  your  trunk  after 

you?" 

Miss  Meg  met  her  in  the  hall  with  outstretched 
hands,  saying,  — 

"I  know  how  prompt  you  always  are,  so  everything 
is  ready.  But,  first,  would  you  mind  coming  into  the 
library  while  I  write  a  note?" 

Presently  she  read  aloud  the  little  missive,  with  an  air 
of  holding  consultation,  so  that  by  the  time  they  were 
ready  to  go  upstairs,  Chris  had  been  made  to  feel  that 
she  had  come  to  lend  her  aid  in  a  friendly  way  as  she 
had  done  at  the  various  social  functions  of  the  winter. 
Materials  and  fashion-books  were  outspread  on  the  bed 
in  Miss  Meg's  own  room,  where  Chris  found,  gratefully, 
she  was  to  work  instead  of  in  the  remote  sewing-room. 
In  deciding  on  the  way  in  which  Maud's  spring  frocks 
were  to  be  made,  an  hour  passed  quickly;  when  Miss 
Meg  departed  on  her  daily  visit  to  the  "  Beyond,"  Chris 
fell  to  work  in  actual  enjoyment  of  her  new  r81e. 


234  THE   CAPTAIN  OF  THE   SCHOOL 

But  unhappily,  not  for  long  was  she  left  in  peace. 
Mrs.  Courtenay  presently  appeared,  drawn  thither  partly 
by  the  amiable  wish  to  keep  her  young  friend  from 
being  "lonesome,"  — a  calamity  that  she  always  thought 
overtook  a  person  if  left  for  five  minutes  to  her  own 
society, — and  partly  by  the  desire  to  ascertain  "what 
five  letters  spelt  the  name  of  an  ancient  city  of  Phoe 
nicia,  the  home  of  a  wicked  princess,  who  set  up  the 
worship  of  the  false  god  Baal."  As  Chris  could  not 
enlighten  her  on  this  interesting  point,  Mrs.  Courtenay 
fetched  a  Bible  and  Concordance,  and  seating  herself  in 
a  rocking-chair  immediately  before  the  dressmaker, 
began  swaying  violently  back  and  forth,  accompanying 
the  dizzy  motion  with  fragmentary  quotations  from  the 
Concordance,  in  the  intervals  of  a  disjointed  stream 
of  talk. 

"  I  've  wanted  so  much  to  consult  Mr.  Carr  about  that 
point.  I  suppose  he  's  very  busy  hi  Lent,  but  I  think  he 
ought  to  attend  to  the  spiritual  needs  of  his  parishioners, 
whatever  the  season.  *  So  the  posts  that  rode  upon 
mules  and  camels  went  out.'  It's  really  very  strange 
that  he  should  be  'out  so  much  when  I  call  and  he  a 
clergyman  of  the  Episcopal  Church  and  I  dare  say  will 
some  day  be  bishop.  I  hope  he  won't  wear  knicker 
bockers,  as  some  bishops  do,  or  call  himself  *  Holbrook,' 
because  that  was  the  name  of  the  man  who  died  the 
other  day  in  state's  prison  or  —  somewhere.  But  then, 
there 's  no  knowing  1  Things  turn  out  so  strangely 
nowadays,  and  that  is  the  reason  I  never  leave  home 


THE   CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL  235 

without  taking  Wee  Willie  with  me;  the  house  might 
catch  afire  or  burglars  come  on  from  New  York. 
Things  are  so  much  cheaper  in  New  York  than  here ; 
such  bargains  after  the  holidays  I  "  and  Mrs.  Courtenay 
heaved  a  cyclonic  sigh.  "  What 's  the  matter,  my 
dear?"  she  inquired,  as  Chris  uttered  an  exclamation. 

"Nothing,"  answered  the  girl,  faintly.  "You  were 
speaking  of  a  wicked  princess  —  the  opera  —  Medea  —  " 
with  her  brain  in  a  whirl  at  the  awful  discovery  that 
she  had  cut  both  sleeves  for  one  arm. 

The  material  was  a  remnant,  of  an  "  up  and  down  " 
pattern  and  a  "  right  and  wrong  "  side ;  these  trying  con 
ditions  had  necessitated,  hi  the  first  instance,  the  most 
careful  planning,  and  not  a  scrap  of  the  material  re 
mained,  as  she  well  knew.  Nevertheless,  in  forlorn 
hope,  she  searched  the  floor,  the  bed,  and  the  tables; 
she  scrutinized  every  corner  of  the  room,  and  even  looked 
behind  the  window  draperies,  —  "  as  though  I  expected 
to  stare  some  of  the  stuff  into  existence,  like  the  old 
Begum  and  the  teacups  in  Mr.  Blake's  fairy  tale,"  she 
thought,  with  a  gleam  of  humor  felt  to  be  as  misplaced 
as  at  a  funeral.  Mrs.  Courtenay,  meantime,  having 
somehow  become  possessed  by  the  idea  that  the  dress 
maker  had  lost  her  scissors,  was  on  her  knees  before  the 
fireplace,  narrating  to  somebody  up  the  chimney  how 
a  treasured  pair  of  shears  of  her  own  had  once  mysteri 
ously  vanished,  and  after  having  been  mourned  as  lost 
for  a  twelvemonth,  was  discovered  behind  the  cushions 
of  her  rocking-chair.  Fired  by  this  recollection,  she 


236  THE   CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL 

proceeded  to  search  the  chair  she  had  just  left.  Perhaps 
she  deemed  it  a  magnet  for  wandering  steel. 

"Never  mind,  dear  Mrs.  Courtenay!"  said  Chris, 
sweetly.  "  Perhaps  you  would  be  so  kind  as  to  lend  me 
your  scissors,"  she  added,  for  to  her  guilty  consciousness 
it  seemed  evident  to  everybody  that  Maud  must  appear 
at  Easter  with  a  sleeve  that  was  upside  down  and  wrong 
side  out. 

To  her  inexpressible  relief,  Mrs.  Courtenay  presently 
announced  her  intention  of  calling  on  Mr.  Carr. 

"I  know  it's  his  sermon  morning,"  she  added  benig- 
nantly ;  "  but  then,  he  won't  mind  me." 

Hardly  was  her  ponderous  back  turned,  when  Chris 
whipped  the  evidence  of  her  guilt  into  her  pocket.  But 
peace  of  mind  was  gone,  and  the  remainder  of  the  morn 
ing  was  spent  in  a  fruitless  endeavor  to  think  of  some 
way  out  of  her  difficulty.  On  her  return  from  school, 
Maud  was  called  in  to  try  on  the  frock.  While  the 
skirt  was  being  adjusted,  she  stood  on  either  leg,  like  a 
stork ;  and  when  Chris  tried  to  fit  the  waist,  hitched  her 
shoulders,  screwed  herself  into  the  attitude  of  a  contor 
tionist  in  the  endeavor  to  see  the  back,  and  anon 
wriggled  out  of  the  dressmaker's  hands  to  preen  up  and 
down  before  the  mirror,  dragging  an  imaginary  train. 

"  Where 's  the  other  sleeve  ?  "  she  demanded. 

"It  isn't  cut,"  answered  Chris,  hastily  taking  out 
the  pins. 

"  I  want  to  see  how  I  'm  going  to  look.  Where 's  the 
other  sleeve  ?  "  reiterated  the  youthful  Nemesis. 


THE  CAPTAIN  OP  THE  SCHOOL  237 

"  Never  mind  now,  there 's  a  dear,"  pleaded  the  hapless 
dressmaker. 

Fortunately,  at  this  crisis,  Mrs.  Courtenay  returned 
from  a  fruitless  call  at  the  rectory,  and  Maud's  perti 
nacity  was  checked. 

"What  a  diffident  little  woman  Mrs.  Carr  is!"  ob 
served  Mrs.  Courtenay.  "  I  only  just  mentioned  how 
nice  the  addition  to  the  rectory  looked,  and  how  con 
venient  for  Mr.  Carr  to  have  an  independent  entrance 
and  exit,  and  she  turned  quite  scarlet,  my  dear." 

Miss  Meg  returned  at  noon  only  for  a  hasty  luncheon, 
but  her  words  of  encouragement  enabled  Chris  to  perse 
vere  through  the  afternoon  instead  of  confessing  her 
blunder  and  retiring  to  a  convent  for  the  rest  of  her 
life.  She  went  home  feeling  that  there  were  trials  in 
the  path  of  the  breadwinner  of  which  she  had  never 
dreamt. 

That  night  she  turned  and  tossed  on  her  bed,  seeking 
some  way  out  of  her  dilemma,  and  when  at  last  she  fell 
asleep,  it  was  only  to  troubled  slumber.  She  opened  her 
eyes  just  as  the  outlines  of  things  in  her  room  were  be 
coming  visible,  with  a  vague  sense  of  something  awful 
that  had  happened.  The  next  moment  she  sat  bolt 
upright  with  wide-open  eyes.  Sleep  had  seemingly 
brought  inspiration,  and  the  solution  of  the  question  was 
clear  before  her.  She  would  go  in  town  on  the  "tin 
pail "  train,  match  the  material,  and  be  back  in  time  to 
present  herself  at  the  Courtenays'  only  a  little  after  the 
appointed  hour.  Dressing  herself  with  all  speed,  she 


238  THE   CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL 

slipped,  breakfastless,  from  the  house  before  any  one 
else  was  astir,  —  Chris,  who  had  never  before  been  known 
to  leave  her  bed  before  the  world  had  fairly  rubbed  its  eyes 
open,  —  and  made  her  way  to  the  station  in  the  gray  light 
of  the  piercing  March  morning.  The  car  was  filled  with 
laboring-men  with  dinner-pails  and  clerks  and  shop-girls 
hastening  to  their  respective  places  of  employment. 
Most  of  the  latter  looked  cold  and  sleepy  and  underfed ; 
a  queer  little  thrill  of  fellow  feeling  presently  moved 
Chris  to  offer  her  seat  to  a  girl  of  about  her  own  age, 
who  entered  the  train  at  a  forlorn  way  station,  and 
whose  pale  face  and  sunken  chest  showed  her  ill  pre 
pared  to  begin  the  long  day  by  weary  standing  in  the 
crowded  aisle. 

Chris  entered  the  first  shop  as  the  covers  were  being 
taken  from  the  counters  and  cash  boys  were  scudding 
hither  and  thither.  She  made  her  request  known  to  a 
clerk  whose  faculties  seemed  not  fully  aroused  from 
their  night's  torpor. 

"This  was  a  remnant,  madam,"  he  said;  "we  have 
nothing  like  it,"  and  added,  out  of  the  fulness  of  his 
heart,  "  I  don't  believe  you  '11  be  able  to  match  it  any 
where  in  town." 

Prophetic  words !  From  shop  to  shop  Chris  wended 
her  way  with  her  "  sample  "  and  her  query,  her  steps 
growing  ever  heavier  as  each  successive  clerk  returned 
the  fated  sleeve  with  the  like  reply.  She  even  looked, 
equally  in  vain,  hi  places  off  the  beaten  track  of 
shoppers,  where  limp  linen  dusters  and  tawdry  calico 


THE  CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL  239 

wrappers  swung  in  low,  dingy  doorways,  placarded  with 
dirty  scraps  of  pasteboard.  The  hours  had  flown  when 
she  entered  the  last  shop.  Her  heart  gave  a  bound  as 
the  clerk  unearthed  a  pile  of  odds  and  ends  from  beneath 
the  counter  and  produced  a  small  piece  of  the  desired 
goods.  Chris  hastened  to  the  station  with  a  hatred  of 
"  bargains  "  that  she  felt  would  be  lifelong. 

It  was  after  luncheon  when  she  made  her  appearance  at 
the  Courtenays' ;  to  her  relief  no  comment  was  made  on 
the  delay.  How  sick  and  faint  she  was,  as  she  worked, 
fasting,  through  the  long  hours  of  the  afternoon,  trying 
to  make  up  for  lost  time  1 

That  first  day  was,  in  many  respects,  like  those  that 
followed,  except  that  the  novelty  of  the  situation  soon 
wore  off,  and  the  work  resolved  into  steady,  unremitting 
toil,  that  sent  Chris  home  with  tired  fingers  and  wearied 
brain ;  lingering  sleep  brought  visions  of  breadths  and 
gores,  Biblical  conundrums,  a  swaying  rocking-chair  and 
a  poodle  that  she  grew  to  hate  with  a  virulence  un 
equalled  since  the  days  of  "  Snarleyow,  the  Dog  Fiend." 
Light  as  were  the  chains,  they  were  still  bondage. 
When  tired  of  hemming  the  interminable  ruffle,  she 
could  not  refresh  herself  by  running  to  the  piano  and 
thrumming  a  waltz ;  if  the  skirt  betrayed  a  tendency 
to  hitch,  she  might  not  thrust  it  out  of  sight  to  await 
a  more  favorable  opportunity.  Nor  must  she  betray 
impatience  at  Mrs.  Courtenay's  chatter  nor  chide 
Maud's  overweening  vanity.  When  the  day's  work 
was  done,  scarcely  more  tired  from  the  unaccustomed 


240  THE  CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL 

toil  than  from  the  tumult  of  new  thoughts,  she 
crossed  the  street,  accompanied  unfailingly  by  young 
Mr.  Courtenay. 

"There  was  no  need,  it  was  scarcely  dark,"  she  fal 
tered  ;  but  the  young  man,  with  his  quiet,  grave  cour 
tesy,  that  always  contained  a  certain  suggestion  of 
masterfulness,  put  aside  the  demur.  In  her  new  humil 
ity  there  came  to  the  girl  none  of  the  gay  speeches  and 
bright  nothings  with  which  she  had  once  sought  to 
attract  her  companion.  But  the  little  attention  was 
unspeakably  grateful  to  her  in  the  thought,  "  He  treats 
me  as  though  I  were  still  their  guest !  "  and  in  a  strange 
sweet  sense  of  rest  and  comfort  that  she  did  not  seek  to 
analyze,  and  which  was  too  precious  to  be  broken  by 
words. 

"  Good-night,  Mr.  Courtenay." 

"  Good-night,  Miss  Chris." 

Then  he  went  back  to  his  beautiful  home  —  and  to 
Miss  Herbert;  and  Chris  entered  the  shabby  old  house, 
realizing,  with  double  weight,  that  she  was  tired  and 
dispirited  and  longed  to  go  to  her  own  room  and  have  a 
good  cry.  It  was  not  easy,  instead,  to  try  to  make  the 
supper-table  bright  and  cheery  with  her  chatter  and  to 
answer  without  impatience  all  Betty's  questions  as  to 
"  what  Maud  was  going  to  wear ; "  for  of  course  Maud 
had  told  Betty  what  Chris  was  doing  at  her  house, 
and  of  course  Betty  had  promptly  informed  the  others ; 
but  to  Chris's  surprise  and  relief,  Bobby  had  not 
pounced  upon  the  situation  with  every  ingenuity  of 


THE  CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL  241 

tormenting  query  and  suggestion;  Nan  opened  her 
mouth  only  to  shut  it  again;  sometimes,  in  the  days 
that  followed,  she  looked  at  her  sister  in  a  questioning 
way  and  insensibly  her  chilling  demeanor  altered. 
Lou,  too,  looked  as  though  she  would  like  to  know  more, 
but  forbore  to  speak. 

Since  the  uncomplimentary  remarks  of  which  she  had 
been  the  object,  Chris  had  dreaded  meeting  Mr.  Courte- 
nay,  and  in  her  goings  and  comings  slipped  quietly  past 
the  library.  But  one  day  he  came  forward  with  out 
stretched  hand  and  with  so  kindly  an  expression  in  his 
keen  gray  eyes  that  Chris  straightway  forgot  her  fear, 
and  never  afterward  passed  the  library  without  pausing 
for  the  greeting  that  always  awaited  her. 

She  seldom  saw  Miss  Meg,  except  at  luncheon.  But 
even  in  that  brief  interval  there  was  always  tune  for 
a  sympathetic  smile,  an  interested  query,  or  a  few  helpful 
words,  that  sent  the  girl  back  to  her  work  with  new 
strength  and  courage ;  as  her  fingers  flew  at  their  task, 
the  image  of  a  lovely,  gracious  womanhood  was  with  her 
in  the  upper  chamber,  and  words  from  some  forgotten 
source  floated  in  her  mind,  — 

"  'T  were  like  a  breach 
Of  reverence  in  a  temple,  could  I  dare 
Here  speak  untruth,  here  wrong  my  inmost  thought. 
Here  I  grow  strong  and  pure,  here  I  may  yield 
Without  shamefacedness  the  little  brought 
From  out  my  poorer  life,  and  stand  revealed 
And  glad  and  trusting,  in  the  sweet  and  rare 
And  tender  presence  which  hath  filled  this  air." 
16 


242  THE   CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL 

She  marvelled  sometimes  that  she  had  hitherto  seen  in 
her  friend  only  the  woman  of  wealth  and  fashion,  who 
even  in  the  moments  of  her  most  unbounded  admiration 
had  not  appealed  to  her  as  did  the  Miss  Meg  who  was 
being  slowly  revealed  hi  the  light  of  a  new  understand 
ing,  a  more  sympathetic  insight.  The  words  spoken  in 
that  quiet  hour  in  the  library  repeated  themselves  in 
Chris's  mind,  with  ever  deepening  meaning, — 

"  Dear,  one  may  still  give  her  right  arm  to  the  King 
in  loyal,  loving  service." 

Miss  Herbert,  dividing  her  tune  between  the  work  hi 
the  "  Beyond  "  and  the  Lenten  services  at  St.  Barnabas, 
was  rarely  seen  by  Chris;  but  in  these  glimpses  even 
she  appeared  in  a  new  aspect,  and  beneath  the  frigid 
demeanor  and  punctilious  regard  for  etiquette  were 
discerned  a  true  heart  and  a  standard  that  demanded 
as  much  of  herself  as  of  others. 

Miss  Meg  had  insisted  that  Chris  should  leave  her 
work  every  afternoon  for  fresh  air  and  exercise,  and  Mr. 
Blake  found  it  convenient  to  take  his  constitutional  in 
the  same  direction,  at  the  leisurely  pace  enjoined  by 
the  Buddhistic  code.  What  change  had  come  over  Chris 
she  could  scarce  have  told,  but,  marking  the  evident 
trend  of  the  young  man's  words,  she  affected  to  treat 
them  as  part  of  the  nonsense  they  had  bandied  back  and 
forth  all  winter.  But  one  afternoon  he  spoke  with  a 
seriousness  that  could  not  be  lightly  turned  aside  j  and 
quietly  and  seriously,  too,  she  made  answer  in  a  gently 
framed  "  No." 


THE  CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL      243 

"You  can't  mean  it!  I've  taken  you  by  surprise. 
I  thought  you  knew  —  that  you  understood  from  the 
first  how  much  I  liked  you,"  repeated  the  young  man. 

"  I  'm  so  sorry  —  but  —  I  could  n't  care  for  you  —  at 
least,  not  in  that  way,"  faltered  Chris. 

"  I  don't  see  why  not,"  answered  the  young  man,  pre 
pared  to  argue  the  case,  if  the  objections  were  so  shadowy. 
"  We  've  hit  it  off  fairly  well  together  thus  far.  I  think 
I  'm  not  such  a  beast  that  a  girl  could  n't  get  along  with 
me.  And  although  I  know  it's  the  last  question  that 
could  ever  come  into  your  head,  I  've  rocks  enough  for 
us  to  rub  along  on  very  comfortably." 

"  Don't,  oh,  don't  1 "  cried  Chris,  hastening  her  steps. 

"  You  need  n't  run  away,"  said  the  young  man,  with 
new  bitterness. 

They  walked  on  in  silence,  till  they  neared  the 
Courtenays'  house. 

"  Can't  you,  Chris  ?  "  asked  the  young  man,  earnestly. 

"I  couldn't,"  she  answered,  with  a  gentleness  that 
for  an  instant  recalled  Miss  Meg's  own  manner.  "  Some 
time  you  will  see  it  as  I  do,  and  then  you  will  be 
glad  that  I  answered  you  as  I  have,  instead  of  as  you 
would  like  to  have  me." 

"  You  are  the  only  girl  I  have  ever  cared  for,  or  ever 
shall,"  asseverated  the  young  man,  gloomily. 

He  would  have  taken  leave  of  her  in  the  porch,  but  as 
the  door  was  opened,  Mrs.  Courtenay  chanced  to  be 
passing  through  the  hall.  Since  Willie  Winkie's  rescue 
from  a  tragic  death,  the  old  lady  referred  to  Mr.  Blake 


244  THE  CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL 

as  "a  hero."  It  was  difficult  to  evade  her  pressing 
hospitality;  so  the  young  man  entered,  and  being  just 
then  in  a  rudderless  mental  condition,  remained  through 
the  evening ;  he  went  home  thinking  that  henceforth  he 
would  live  for  art.  And  by  the  by  what  a  classic 
profile  and  faultless  coloring  Miss  Herbert  had! 

To-night,  with  a  goodly  sum  in  her  pocket,  Chris 
would  pick  her  way  through  the  mud  for  the  last  tune. 
She  wondered  that  the  thought  did  not  bring  more 
rejoicing.  When  she  looked  at  the  clock  her  needle 
lagged,  as  though  she  would  thereby  stay  the  rapid 
hands.  At  six  o'clock  there  were  still  the  finishing 
stitches  to  be  taken  in  Maud's  ulster  —  bought  in  three 
pieces  —  so  that  it  was  considerably  past  the  usual  hour 
when  she  at  last  descended  the  stairs. 

The  gentle  click  of  silver  and  china  was  audible  from 
the  dining-room.  Chris  could  catch  a  glimpse  of  Miss 
Herbert's  black  lace  gown,  that  set  off  so  exquisitely  her 
firm  white  shoulders.  Young  Mr.  Courtenay  was 
doubtless  at  her  side.  It  was  the  brilliant  light  that 
brought  the  mist  to  the  "  dressmaker's  "  strained  eyes, 
and  after  fumbling  in  the  umbrella  rack,  Chris  buried 
her  face  in  a  certain  overcoat  that  hung  near  by  and 
tried  to  wink  away  the  troublesome  moisture. 

"  I  have  your  umbrella,"  said  a  quiet  voice ;  and  young 
Mr.  Courtenay  stood  before  her,  arrayed  in  ulster,  and 
hat  in  hand. 

"I  —  I  thought  you  were  at  dinner,"  stammered  Chris. 

"  Did  you  think  I  would  let  you  go  home  alone  through 


THE  CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL  245 

the  rain  ?  "  returned  the  young  man.  And  if  Chris  had 
not  been  so  perturbed,  she  might  have  noted  a  tone  in 
his  voice  unusual  in  addressing  even  the  most  respected 
dressmaker. 

He  piloted  her  across  the  street,  for  the  last  time  — 
the  last  time,  the  very  rain-drops  were  saying.  It  was 
not  till  they  had  nearly  reached  the  opposite  house  that 
the  silence  was  broken. 

"  What  were  you  crying  for  ? "  asked  young  Mr. 
Courtenay,  abruptly. 

"I  —  I  —  could  n't  find  my  umbrella,"  answered  Chris, 
huskily.  "  I  am  —  so  fond  —  of  my  umbrella  —  " 

The  object  of  her  tearful  affection  was  suddenly 
dropped,  and  a  blast  of  wind  whirled  it  down  the  muddy 
driveway  to  the  utter  disregard  of  its  owner. 

"I  —  must  go  in,"  quavered  Chris.    "  It  —  is  raining ! " 

"  Don't  go,  Chris,"  cried  the  young  man.  "  I  want 
you,  dear,  I  want  you  for  always  1 " 

"  But  —  but  —  I  don't  understand  1 "  In  her  bewilder 
ment,  the  last  vestige  of  self-control  vanished  and  —  how 
it  happened  she  did  not  know  —  she  found  herself  sob 
bing  on  young  Mr.  Courtenay's  shoulder.  "  Miss  —  Her- 
ber-bert  I "  she  gurgled. 

"  What  of  Miss  Herbert?  " 

"She  and  you — she  and  you  —  and  she,"  sobbed 
Chris. 

"  Listen,  dear,"  said  Mr.  Courtenay.  "  Miss  Herbert 
is  one  of  the  nicest  girls  going.  She  has  always  been 
my  sister's  friend  and  mine,  too,  and  she  knows  how 


246  THE  CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL 

fond  I  am  of  her.  But  neither  of  us  has  ever  really 
cared  for  the  other,  and  we  've  both  known  that,  too. 
Besides,  shall  I  tell  you  something?  Miss  Herbert's 
engagement  to  Archie  Blake  is  just  out." 

"  Oh,  but  I  think  you  must  be  mistaken  in  think 
ing  it's  Mr.  Blake,"  urged  Chris,  hi  a  wobbly  voice. 
"She'd  as  soon  many  a  Thug.  Why,  she's  a  High- 
churchwoman;  she  even  goes  into  retreat — and  he  is  a 
theosophist  I " 

"  They  have  decided,  no  doubt,  to  unite  their  predi 
lections,"  suggested  the  young  man,  "  and  will '  retreat ' 
in  future,  together,  to  some  Thibetan  fastness,  on  a  peak 
of  the  Himalayas  '  high '  enough  to  suit  her  proclivities. 
But  the  world  —  just  as  it  is  —  is  a  good  enough  place  for 
me,  with  you  to  live  with  1  Will  you,  Chris,  will  you? " 

Perhaps  the  look  on  Chris's  upturned  face  spoke 
louder  than  words,  for  the  young  man  drew  her  more 
closely  to  him  and  bent  his  face  to  hers. 


THE  CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL  247 


CHAPTER  TWENTY-THREE 

CHRIS'S  announcement  was  followed  by  a  dead 
silence  in  which  the  family  stared  at  her  open- 
mouthed,  with  an  expression  that  was  at  once  incredu 
lous  and  disapproving.  Betty  pushed  her  chair  from  the 
table  and  burst  into  tears. 

"You're  just  as  mean  as  you  can  be!"  she  sobbed. 
"We  were  all  going  to  be  married  on  the  same  day 
and  start  on  our  wedding  journey  in  the  same  hack.  I 
don't  know  as  I'll  come  to  your  wedding,  so  there! 
You'd  oughter  have  waited  for  Lou  and  me." 

"  Me,  too,"  asserted  Nan.  "  No,  I  withdraw  from  the 
family  compact.  There  must  be  a  vestal  virgin  in  every 
family,  and  the  lot  has  fallen  upon  me  in  this  one." 

"  What  did  he  say  ?  "  questioned  Lou,  eagerly.  "  Did 
you  tell  him  '  yes '  at  once,  or  did  he  have  to  ask  you 
two  or  three  times,  as  they  do  in  stories  ? " 

"I  don't  believe  he  asked  at  all,"  supplemented 
Bobby,  as  Chris  warmly  refused  an  answer  to  these 
graceless  questions.  "  I  shall  demand  an  interview  with 
Mr.  Louis  Courtenay  and  find  out  the  exact  state  of 
affairs.  I  cannot  have  my  sister's  young  affections 
trifled  with." 

"They  never  do  ask  directly,"  said  Lou,  sagely, 
"They  give  you  to  understand," 


248  THE   CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL 

"  I  sha'n't  leave  things  at  such  loose  ends  when  I  ask 
my  young  woman,"  declared  Bobby.  "  I  shall  not  give 
her  a  chance  to  cry  off.  I  mean  to  say,  politely,  but 
firmly,  *  Yes  or  no,  and  be  quick  about  it  1 '  and  have  my 
stenographer  on  hand  to  take  down  her  reply.  This 
unjustifiable  reticence,"  he  went  on,  turning  to  Chris, 
"  leads  me  to  fear  that  the  bridegroom's  eloquence  did 
not  rise  to  the  occasion.  Did  he  couch  his  offer  in 
terms  like  Wemmick's,  — '  Hello,  here 's  a  ring '  ?  " 

"You'll  let  me  wear  it  sometimes,  won't  you, 
Chrissy  ?  "  asked  Betty,  eagerly,  emerging  from  her  nap 
kin,  as  she  realized  that  even  this  portentous  cloud  was 
not  without  its  silver  lining, 

"  Have  the  wedding  in  June,  do  I "  urged  Lou ;  "  the 
place  is  so  lovely  then." 

"  If  you  wish  me  to  grace  the  occasion,  the  nuptials 
must  come  off  before  vacation,"  mentioned  Bobby; 
"  *  Courtenay  and  Son '  may  be  unable  to  spare  their 
new  partner  later,  particularly  as  Courtenay's  Son  will 
be  gallivanting  over  the  country  with  you.  If  you  go 
to  Europe,  take  me  with  you.  I  '11  be  courier.  I  would 
much  rather  shoulder  the  trunks  than  do  the  levering." 

"  I  'm  going,  too,"  announced  Betty. 

"  We  will  all  go,"  assented  Bobby.  "  We  will  char 
ter  a  steamer  instead  of  the  proposed  hack.  I  will 
explain  to  brother  Louis,"  adopting  his  new  relative 
with  amiable  alacrity,  "  that  our  sister  would  pine  away 
without  our  cheerful  society,  particularly  that  of  her 
loving  little  brother." 


THE  CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL  249 

"  It  will  be  so  sweet  to  have  Miss  Meg  for  an  elder 
sister,"  murmured  Chris. 

"  We,  who  have  always  enjoyed  the  inestimable 
blessing  of  an  elder  sister,  congratulate,  while  we  do 
not  envy  you,"  said  Bobby,  with  a  Chesterfieldian 
bow. 

"  I  shall  sit  at  the  head  of  the  table  when  you  're 
gone,"  said  Betty  thoughtfully,  as  the  alleviations  of 
the  situation  began  to  grow  upon  her,  accompanying  the 
words  with  a  defiant  look  at  Nan. 

"  Hush ! "  said  Chris,  gently ;  and  Nan,  more  in  re 
sponse  to  tone  than  words,  added  merrily, — 

"We  will  henceforth  consider  the  table  a  Hydra, 
Betty.  It  has  six  heads." 

Yesternight,  when  Chris  had  appeared  for  her  belated 
supper,  Nan  was  alone  at  the  table.  The  elder  girl 
slipped  a  roll  of  bills  into  her  hand.  Nan  looked  up 
with  eyes  that  were  wet  and  shining,  and  Chris,  answer 
ing  the  mute  appeal,  bent  down  and  kissed  her. 

Presently,  in  response  to  the  postman's  ring,  Betty 
returned  with  an  imposing-looking  missive.  After 
spelling  out  the  superscription,  letter  by  letter,  ignoring 
the  impatient  calls  from  about  the  table,  she  said  with 
her  utmost  deliberation,  — 

"I  —  guess  —  it 's  for  Nan,"  and  handed  it  to  Chris. 

Nan  hastily  tore  open  the  package. 

"  It 's  a  picture  !  "  she  exclaimed.  "  Why  —  why, 
girls,  it 's  mine !  Oh,  here  's  a  letter  1 "  She  ran  her 
eye  over  the  accompanying  writing.  "  It 's  a  mistake," 


250      THE  CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL 

she  gasped,  "  a  horrid  joke  1    Send  it  back,  quick,  some 
body,  before  I  spend  it." 

Bobby  promptly  seized  the  extended  letter,  and  read 
it  aloud :  — 

DEAR  MADAM,  —  We  have  the  pleasure  to  enclose  here 
with  our  check  for  one  hundred  dollars,  the  amount  of  the 
prize  offered  by  the  Connoisseur  for  the  best  design  for  an 
Easter  card.  Accompanying  is  our  lithographed  reproduc 
tion  of  your  drawing,  which  we  hope  will  meet  your 
approval. 

Very  respectfully  yours, 

The  Editors  of  the  Connoisseur. 

The  others  looked  eagerly  over  Nan's  shoulder  at 
the  picture. 

The  sun,  from  out  the  violet  mists  of  early  dawn, 
threw  into  bright  relief  the  outlines  of  a  marble  cross. 
Within  the  cross's  shadow,  as  it  rested  upon  a  long  low 
mound  in  the  foreground,  primroses,  emblems  of  im 
mortality,  were  opening  their  blossoms,  and  nestlings 
were  uplifting  a  joyous  carol,  in  the  hope  of  Easter. 

"  Really,  it 's  most  as  good  as  my  Day  of  Judgment," 
said  Betty,  encouragingly. 

Nan  paid  no  heed  to  the  questions  and  comments  with 
which  she  was  showered.  She  had  forgotten  the  money. 
At  that  moment  even  gratified  ambition  held  no  place 
in  her  heart.  She  scarcely  recognized  the  work  as  her 
own.  It  was,  indeed,  a  hothouse  blossom  of  her  nature, 
but  that  she  did  not  know.  She  only  knew,  for  a  fleet- 


THE  CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL  251 

ing.  instant,  that  the  power  to  do  was  hers,  and  that 
henceforth,  no  matter  how  the  light  might  be  obscured, 
something  of  the  radiance  of  that  moment  would  linger 
upon  her  path. 

"Let  us  all  make  our  purchases  to-day,  so  that  the 
room  may  burst  into  full  radiance  at  once,"  suggested 
Bobby,  presently.  "Besides,  it  will  be  better  to  have 
the  edge  taken  off  our  elegance  or  we  may  be  unable  to 
behave  with  our  usual  freedom  from  haughtiness." 

If  Bobby's  share  in  the  prospective  offerings  was  less 
than  he  would  gladly  have  made  it,  he  had  the  satisfac 
tion  of  knowing  that  the  last  cent  of  his  debt  to  Griff 
and  to  the  printer  had  been  paid.  The  Snark  would  be 
handed  on  to  the  coming  class  a  self-respecting  journal 
on  a  paying  basis.  It  was  confidently  reported  that,  the 
next  year,  the  Snark  and  the  Spinster  would  be  com 
bined.  Bobby  had  been  aided  in  his  struggle  with  the 
nearly  expiring  journal  by  the  unexpected  action  of 
Taffy.  Perhaps  Bobby's  own  course  was  not  without 
its  influence ;  something,  too,  of  Taffy's  self-confidence 
had  vanished  since  his  recent  disastrous  "  operation," 
and  the  contumely  visited  upon  him  as  "  the  fellow  who 
lost  the  game"  made  him  grateful  for  even  speech 
from  Cutty.  Something  must  be  wrong,  indeed,  when 
he  turned  with  positive  loathing  from  taffy  —  that  some 
how  seemed  the  cause  of  all  his  misfortunes.  At  last 
he  mustered  courage  to  go  to  his  father  and  make  a 
clean  breast  of  the  whole  affair,  asking  to  borrow  the 
money  he  had  stolen  from  the  Snark's  treasury  and 


252  THE   CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL 

promising  to  work  out  the  sum  that  summer  in  the 
office  of  "Dabney  and  Co.,  Architects."  To  his  sur 
prise,  his  father  did  not  "blow  him  up;"  but  he  did 
talk  long  and  earnestly  with  him,  which  had  the  un 
expected  effect  of  making  Taffy  feel  worse  than  the 
anticipated  severity  would  have  done.  It  would  be  dull 
work,  drawing  up  plans  and  specifications  through  the 
hot  weeks,  when  the  other  fellows  were  enjoying  them 
selves  in  the  woods  or  at  the  seashore ;  but  Taffy  held 
manfully  to  his  resolution,  cheered  by  the  thought  that 
he  would  be  able  to  enter  college,  in  the  fall,  with  a 
clean  record. 

Bobby's  proposition  was  received  with  acclaim.  It 
was  Saturday,  so  that  he  and  Betty,  as  well  as  the  others, 
could  devote  the  day  to  the  purchase  of  their  offerings. 
Not  that  time  for  consideration  was  necessary,  for  all  of 
the  family  had  long  ago  decided  upon  the  special  gift  to 
which  to  devote  their  hoards.  Only,  upon  so  momentous 
an  occasion,  it  was  felt  that  any  appearance  of  haste 
would  be  unseemly.  Chris  was  to  replace  the  dining- 
room  carpet  with  a  handsome  rug.  Nan  had  planned 
a  dinner-service,  —  there  was  one  in  a  certain  show- 
window  to  which  she  made  a  pilgrimage  every  time  she 
went  to  the  city.  Bobby  intended  to  make  a  lamp 
his  offering,  and  Lou  would  buy  table  linen  for  her 
share. 

Betty  had  resolved  to  patronize  local  enterprise.  The 
Empire  Emporium  had  taken  a  fresh  lease  of  life.  Its 
window  had  blossomed  into  an  array  of  emblems  suitable 


THE   CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL  253 

to  the  season,  and  the  tintypes  of  Abraham  Lincoln  were 
replaced  by  lithographs  of  contemporaneous  heroes. 
Within,  the  shelves  were  rilled  with  "  new  spring  stock  " 
that  was  not  a  barefaced  fiction ;  there  was  an  enlarged 
case  of  pies  and  cakes  and  a  fresh  supply  of  walnut 
sticks.  This  general  rejuvenation  was  announced  to  the 
public  by  a  placard  over  the  door,  reading,  — 

"  Come  and  See  I  Do  not  wait  for  the  Crowd  I  An 
hour  may  be  too  late  I  Remember  that  but  one  Chance 
comes  to  Men !  " 

If  the  last  words  held  an  inner  and  tragic  meaning 
known  only  to  Griff,  the  minister  that  was  n't  to  be  was 
no  longer  without  hope  in  the  world;  the  rejuvenation 
that  had  come  over  him  was  no  less  remarkable  than 
that  which  had  taken  place  in  his  stock.  He  stood  up 
right  and  did  not  blink  when  spoken  to,  while  Lucy's 
finger  had  lost  its  dire  effect  upon  his  waistband. 

Among  the  new  stock  was  a  set  of  finger-bowls. 
They  were  very  red,  very  ugly,  with  a  wiggly  physio 
logical  sort  of  design,  suggestive  of  intestines.  Betty's 
own  conception  of  her  brother's  friend,  aided  by  the  con 
stant  family  reference  to  him  as  a  "  Bugaboo "  had 
taken  immovable  lodgment  in  her  mind.  The  giant  at 
the  "  Zoo "  always  wore  a  red  necktie  and  flourished 
a  red  bandanna  handkerchief ;  it  was  therefore  deducible 
that  red  was  the  favorite  color  of  giants.  Betty  had 
hailed  the  finger-bowls  with  a  rapture  that  held  no  doubt 
as  to  the  gratification  the  gaudy  glass  would  afford  the 
coming  "Visitor." 


254  THE   CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL 

Nan  was  the  first  to  reach  home  after  the  day's  shop- 
ing.  It  occurred  to  her,  as  a  kind  and  sisterly  deed, 
that  she  would  take  up  the  dining-room  carpet  and  get 
the  floor  in  readiness  for  Chris's  offering.  Accordingly 
she  arrayed  herself  in  the  indispensable  adjuncts  to  her 
labors  in  whatever  field,  —  the  big  apron  and  the  hang 
man's  cap,  —  and,  armed  with  the  hammer,  fell  to  work, 
jerking,  pulling,  clawing,  and  ever  and  anon  falling  over 
backwards  in  whatever  is  the  equivalent,  in  carpet 
ripping,  of  catching  crabs.  The  disordered  breadths 
were  gathered  together  and  piled  in  a  corner  of  the  room. 
Washing  the  floor  was  next  in  order.  Disdaining  a 
mop  as  a  half-way  measure,  a  mean-spirited  compromise 
between  cleanliness  and  dignity,  Nan  went  to  work  on 
her  hands  and  knees,  and  the  dirt  was  speedily  con 
verted  into  mud.  The  wash-pail  and  scrubbing-rags 
were  deposited  under  the  table.  It  was  time  to  begin 
preparations  for  tea;  the  stove  was  black  and  cold, 
Bridget  having  elected  to  participate  in  the  general  holi 
day.  The  frenzy  that  had  possessed  Nan  all  at  once 
departed,  leaving  her  limp  and  nerveless.  Seating  her 
self  on  the  inverted  coalhod,  she  sat  hugging  her  knees, 
and  waiting  for  the  others'  return.  It  was  not  long 
before  Chris  and  Lou  entered  the  house;  they  went 
upstairs  more  quietly  than  usual;  doubtless  they,  too, 
were  tired.  Presently  a  pounding  and  shuffling  on 
the  piazza  announced  Betty,  while  a  prolonged  giggle, 
merging  into  a  wail,  indicated  that  Bobby  was  with  her. 
All  entered  the  kitchen  together. 


THE   CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL  255 

"The  lamp  is  coming  out  by  express,"  said  Bobby. 
"It's  a  beauty.  Will  your  things  be  here  to-night, 
too?" 

Nan  smiled  feebly,  Chris  gazed  at  the  ceiling,  Lou 
looked  at  the  floor,  Betty  burst  into  a  howl. 

"  There,  see  what  I  've  done ! "  she  cried,  tugging  at 
a  huge  parcel  with  which  her  pocket  bulged.  With  a 
wild  shake  she  scattered  its  contents  far  and  wide. 

One  — three  — ten  —  fifteen^ — thirty-two  jaw-breakers  1 
She  had  bought  out  the  Emporium  I 

Strange  to  say,  no  one  paid  the  slightest  heed  to  this 
performance. 

"  Oh,  girls !  oh,  Bobby !  "  gasped  Nan. 

" '  Oh,  fire  and  coal  scuttle,  and  shovel  and  tongs  and 
fender  and  ashes  and  dust  and  dirt!  Oh,  everythuig! 
Oh,  nothing !  Oh,  my  eye ! '  "  spouted  Bobby.  "  Have 
you  been  reading  Walt  Whitman  ?  " 

"  I  don't  know  what  possessed  me,"  groaned  Nan.  "  I 
never  went  near  the  china  shop.  I  went  straight  to  the 
bookstore  and  bought  the  beautiful  new  edition  of 
Browning." 

"  And  I  did  n't  go  to  the  linen  shop,  either,"  chimed  in 
Lou,  breathlessly.  "  I  went  to  all  the  spring  openings 
at  the  millinery  stores.  I  had  the  most  beautiful  tune  I 
I  was  simply  starving  for  the  sight  of  a  bonnet  —  I 
always  did  hate  a  hat.  I  bought  such  a  lovely  one  — 
just  the  thing  for  Easter.  It 's  upstairs.  I  '11  show  it 
to  you." 

"  I  did  n't  get  the  rug,"  said  Chris.     "  I  went  around 


256  THE   CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL 

hunting  for  bargains.  I  found  a  lovely  piece  of  black 
silk." 

The  silence  that  followed  was  the  longest  in  the  family 
annals. 

"  It 's  just  as  I  Ve  always  said.  Girls  are  bound  to 
be  the  ruin  of  any  enterprise  they're  in,"  said  Bobby, 
in  tones  of  unmeasured  disgust.  "  Only  —  I  did  think 
better  of  you  1  What  struck  you  all  ?  " 

"Beggars  on  horseback.  Temporary  insanity.  Re 
action  is  equal  to  action  and  in  the  contrary  direction. 
Repression  begets  revolt,"  suggested  Nan.  "  Luckily, 
we  're  all  in  one  boat,  and  none  of  us  can  ever  twit  the 
others  of  this  futile  end  of  the  winter  of  our  struggles  1 " 

There  was  a  peal  at  the  back-door  bell.  Only  Bobby 
had  strength  of  mind  to  answer. 

"  It 's  the  lamp  I  "  he  cried,  and  flinging  open  the  door, 
shouted,  — 

"  Hi  there  I     Look  out  how  you  fetch  her  1 " 

It  was  not  the  expressman.  It  was  Dick.  They 
knew  him  at  once,  despite  the  years  of  absence,  and  as 
with  one  impulse,  fell  upon  him.  Chris  had  a  hand 
upon  his  shoulder,  while  Nan  grasped  an  arm  as  though 
fearful  of  his  vanishing,  bodily,  from  their  midst.  Bobby 
was  shaking  hands  with  the  apparent  intention  of  keep 
ing  on  till  the  end  of  time ;  and  Betty,  mindful  of  the 
presumable  neighborhood  of  the  giant,  laid  hold  of  her 
elder  brother's  coat-tails  for  protection,  while  she  mur 
mured  weepingly,  — 

"Don't  let   him    get  me!    I've  bought  him   some 


THE  CAPTAIN  OF  THE  SCHOOL      257 

sweet  pretty  finger-bowls.  Oh,  no,  I  have  n't  I  oh,  no  I 
so  red  —  so  sweet  —  so  pretty !  But  I  have  n't  them  1 " 
The  wail  ended  in  a  howl  that  had  the  effect  of  bringing 
*  every  one  but  Betty  to  some  approximate  realization  of 
the  situation,  and  simultaneously  they  let  go  their  hold 
of  Dick.  Upon  the  threshold  stood,  at  last,  the  dread 
Visitor.  Lou  was  the  only  one  who  retained  command 
of  her  powers  of  speech. 

"  How  do  you  do,  Colonel  Bugaboo  ?  "  said  she,  with 
awful  distinctness.  Happily  for  herself,  she  was  un 
conscious  of  her  fall  from  grace,  and  entered  into  con 
versation  with  the  "  Visitor,"  whom  she  apparently  did 
not  find  "dread"  at  all;  an  upright,  military  bearing, 
a  handsome  face,  and  pleasant  voice  made  up  a  list  of 
attractions  to  which  it  was  easy  to  see  that  Lou  was  not 
unsusceptible. 

" '  We  have  done  the  things  we  should  not  have 
done,' "  murmured  Nan,  hysterically. 

"  What  is  there  for  supper  ?  "  articulated  Chris. 

"Nothing  but  half  a  pan  of  stale  gingerbread,"  an 
swered  Nan,  with  the  calmness  of  despair.  "  I  forgot  to 
order  anything  this  morning." 

Both  girls  spoke  in  tones  they  fondly  imagined  to  be 
whispers,  but  which  the  deafest  colonel  of  cavalry  would 
have  had  no  difficulty  in  overhearing.  That  this  par 
ticular  officer  heard  was  evidenced  by  the  twitching  of 
the  lip  half  hidden  by  a  heavy  moustache,  followed  by 
an  irrepressible  laugh.  They  might  learn  to  like  Colonel 
Jerome  for  all  those  sterling  qualities  for  which  Dick 

17 


258  THE   CAPTAIN  OF  THE   SCHOOL 

valued  his  friend;  but  it  was  the  laugh  that  won  him 
instant  admission  to  their  hearth,  their  home,  —  most 
sacred  of  all,  their  table!  Lou  actually  rose  to  the 
occasion. 

"  Do  you  like  gingerbread  ?  "  she  asked  prettily. 

"Above  all  things,"  answered  Colonel  Jerome,  with 
the  appearance  of  truth. 

"  Then  you  shall  help  me  cut  it." 

Bobby  and  Betty  retired  to  the  pantry  to  peer  at  Lou 
and  her  companion  in  the  chaotic  dining-room. 

"  Lou  always  did  like  soldier  boys,"  said  Betty, 
thoughtfully.  Then,  as  a  new  idea  struck  her,  she 
whimpered,  "I  don't  care,  I  call  it  mean.  I  don't  be 
lieve  Lou  means  to  wait  for  me,  either  1 " 


"  Say  not,  'twas  all  in  vain. 
Love  thrown  upon  the  waters  comes  again, 
In  quenchless  yearnings  for  a  nobler  life." 


THE  END 


A  NEW  ILLUSTRATED  EDITION 
With  pictures  by  REGINALD  B.  BIRCH 

Little  Men 

Life  at  Plumfield  with  Jo's  Boys 
By  LOUISA  M.  ALCOTT 

Author  of  "LITTLE  WOMEN,"    "  EIGHT  COUSINS,"   "AN  OLD- 
FASHIONED  GIRL,"  "  SPINNING-WHEEL  STORIES,"  ETC. 

With    15    full-page    illustrations   by    REGINALD   B.    BIRCH, 

illustrator  of  "  Little  Lord  Fauntleroy." 
Crown  8vo.     DECORATED   CLOTH.     $2.00. 

Nothing  of  its  kind  could  be  better  than  Miss  Alcott's  "  Little  Men," 
unless,  possibly,  her  "  Little  Women."  ...  It  is  the  story  of  boys 
at  school,  and  how  they  lived  there.  The  boys  will  like  it,  for  it  will 
tell  them  of  their  own  kind.  The  mothers  will  like  it,  for  it  is  full  of 
suggestions  on  the  high  art  of  governing.  And  everybody  should 
read  it,  for  it  is  cheery  and  like  cordial  from  beginning  to  end.  — 
Congregationalist. 

Full  of  vivacity,  life,  and  sparkle,  as  well  as  good  sense.  —  Milwaukee 
Sentinel. 

Miss  Alcott  is  really  a  benefactor  of  households.  —  HELEN  HUNT 
JACKSON. 

Bright  and  sparkling.  .  .  .  Never  was  there  such  a  want  of  system 
as  at  Plumfield,  and  yet  never  were  such  happy  results  attained  in 
education  before.  .  .  .  How  jolly  would  this  world  be  if  child-life 
was  all  a  Plumfield  experience  !  —  New  York  Evening  Post. 
Miss  Alcott  is  always  welcome,  not  only  to  the  boys  and  girls  she  has 
taken  under  her  special  patronage,  but  also  to  their  elders.  .  .  .  Miss 
Alcott's  stories  are  thoroughly  healthy,  full  of  racy  fun  and  humor, 
even  when  she  is  teaching  some  extra  hard  task  which  must  be  learned 
and  accomplished.  —  London  Athen<tum. 

LITTLE,  BROWN,  &  COMPANY,  Publishers 
254  Washington  Street,  Boston,  Mass. 


An  Entertaining  Story  of  School  Life 

The  Boys  and  Girls 
of  Brantham 

By  EVELYN   RAYMOND 

Author  of  "AMONG  THE  LINDENS,"   "A  CAPE  MAY  DIAMOND," 
"  THE  LITTLE   LADY  OF  THE  HORSE,"   ETC. 

Illustrated  by  ETHELDRED  B.  BARRY 

I2mo.     DECORATED  CLOTH.     $1.50. 

A  charming  tale  for  both  boys  and  girls.  —  Chicago  Chronicle. 
It  is  a  jolly  little  story  all  through.  —  Book  Buyer. 

The  incidents  are  amusing,  and  the  dialogue  bright,  and  there  is  a 
healthy,  stirring  atmosphere  about  the  entire  book.  —  New  York  Com 
mercial  Advertiser. 

A  pleasant,  cheerful  book.  —  Boston  Transcript. 

Holds  the  reader' s  interest  from  first  to  last.  —  Ne<w  York  Tribune. 

A  good  story.  —  Boston  Advertiser. 

The  breezy  atmosphere,  which  one  naturally  associates  with  tales  of 
boarding-school  life,  its  occasional  escapades,  and  inevitable  rivalries 
is  not  lacking  ;  and  the  book  is  fully  equal  to  the  ealier  ones  by  the 
same  writer.  —  Christian  Register,  Boston. 

A  bright,  readable  story,  abounding  in  incident  and  fresh  in  style.  — 
Portland  Transcript. 

The  whole  story  is  brightly  and  pleasantly  told,  and  withal  quite 
convincingly.  It  is  equally  good  for  boys  or  girls.  —  Chicago  Tribune. 

LITTLE,  BROWN,  &  COMPANY,  Publishers 
254  Washington  Street,  Boston,  Mass. 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 

Los  Angeles 
This  book  is  DUE  on  the  last  date  stamped  below. 


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